MASTER 

NEGA  TIVE 

NO.  91-80334-12 


MICROFILMED  1993 
COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES/NEW  YORK 


as  part  of  the 
"Foundations  of  Western  Civilization  Preservation  Project" 


Funded  by  the 
NATIONAL  ENDOWMENT  FOR  THE  HUMANITIES 


Reproductions  may  not  be  made  without  permission  from 

Columbia  University  Library 


COPYRIGHT  STATEMENT 


The  copyright  law  of  the  United  States  -  Title  17,  United 
States  Code  -  concerns  the  making  of  photocopies  or 
other  reproductions  of  copyrighted  material. 

Under  certain  conditions  specified  in  the  law,  libraries  and 
archives  are  authorized  to  furnish  a  photocopy  or  other 
reproduction.  One  of  these  specified  conditions  is  that  the 
photocopy  or  other  reproduction  is  not  to  be  "used  for  any 
purpose  other  than  private  study,  scholarship,  or 
research.*'  If  a  user  makes  a  request  for,  or  later  uses,  a 
photocopy  or  reproduction  for  purposes  in  excess  of  "fair 
use,"  that  user  may  be  liable  for  copyright  infringement. 

This  institution  reserves  the  right  to  refuse  to  accept  a 
copy  order  if,  in  its  judgement,  fulfillment  of  the  order 
would  involve  violation  of  the  copyright  law. 


A  UTHOR : 


CLYDE,  JAMES 


TITLE: 


ROMAIC  AND  MODERN 

GREEK  COMPARED  ... 


PLACE: 


EDINBURGH 


DA  TE : 


1855 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES 
PRESERVATION  DEPARTMENT 

BIBLIOHR  APHIC  MTrROFORM  TARHFT 


Master  Negative  # 


Original  Material  as  Filmed  -  Existing  Bibliographic  Record 


!808 

IC629 


Clyde,  James. 

VII,  61  p.    2H"».  ' 


Restrictions  on  Use: 


1-  Prcck  langi.aKc.  Modcrn-A^^ 


re«»s^»,  ^essays,  Iccturw. 


Library  of  Coiigr 


CSS 


10-287571 


PAI063.C6 


FILM     SIZE:         35^/ 


TECHNICAL  MICROFORM  DATA 


IMAGE  PLACEM-ENtT-,X-^-,B     „B       '"^°""'°'^     "^^'O^ 

DATE     FILMED: ^Sz/rJ22. INITIALS  M(^'^ 

HLMEDBY:    RESEARCH  PI  JBLICATIONS,  INC  WOOnHRrnnFrr^ 


i.L< 


r 

Association  for  information  and  Image  {Management 

1 1 00  Wayne  Avenue,  Suite  1 1 00 
Silver  Spring,  Maryland  20910 

301/587-8202 


Centimeter 

12        3        4         5 

liiiiliiiil 


III! 


7        8 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiiiliiiil 


9        10 

liinliiiiliii 


n 

Imi 


12       13       14 

nliin 


15    mm 


iiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 


ITT 


Inches 


TTT 


1 


T 


TTT 


TTT 


.0 


I.I 


1.25 


TTT 


1.4 


"!  2.8 

2.5 

:ii  = 

|i6 
163 

1^ 

|M 

2.2 

Ih 

2.0 

1.8 

1.6 


T  1    I 


MPNUFRCTURED   TO   RUM   STHNDflRDS 
BY   fiPPLIED   IMfiGE.     INC. 


8b6 


v> 


6Ct) 


• 


(Columlna  ^Llnil^crsttP 

iiitlirCupinilnuPnrk 


1. 1  H  R  .\  R  V 


ROMAIC 


a:>/> 


M  0  D  E  R  N   G  R  E  E  K. 


Pkicr 


JAMKS  CLYDK.   M..\. 


3s. 


^ 


/4/ 


fl 


( 


ROMAIC  AND  3I0DERN  GRIJIEK 


COMPARED  WITH  ONE  ANOTIIKR, 


AND   WITH 


ANCIENT  GREEK. 


BV 


JAMES  CLYDE,  M.A. 


EDINBURGH : SUTHEKLAND  AND  KNOX 

LONDON:  SIMPKIN,  MARSHALL.  AND  CO. 


MDCOCLV; 


•  »  •     t 


<    t 
•     > 


o 


TO 


Mrs. Carroll   N.Brown 
May  12,19-1:0 


J.   S.  DLACKIE, 


rROFESSOll  OF  GUECK  IN  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  EDINBURUJI. 


Sir, 


By  your  public  declarations  that  a  language  worthy 
of  the  Greek  nanie  survives,  my  attention  was  called  two  years 
ago  to  the  dialects  spoken  and  written  by  the  modern  Greeks  : 
the  specimens  of  the  Athenian  periodical  press,  with  which  you 
answered  my  first  inquiries,  convinced  me  that,  antiquities  apart, 
a  residence  in  Athens  would  amply  reward  the  student  of  Greek ; 
and,  when  you  found  me  there  in  the  spring  of  1853,  your  enthu- 
siasm was  my  encouragement  to  prosecute  the  investigations 
bciTun. 

To  you,  therefore,  as  to  a  benefactor,  I  gratefully  dedicate  the 
following  pages,  in  which  is  exhibited  the  result  of  eight  months' 
observation  and  inquiry  on  the  spot,  being  well  persuaded  that,  if 
they  elucidate  in  any  measure  the  fortunes  and  prospects  even  of 
non-classical  Greek,  they  will  find  an  approver  and  patron  in 
one  who  has  given  a  new  impetus  to  Greek  studies  in  our  native 
country,  and,  in  particular,  who  first  dared  to  assume  before  tlie 
British  public  the  responsibility  of  recommending  Modern  Greek 
to  the  attention  of  classical  students. 

1  unite  ujy  wishes  to  those  of  a  whole  generation  of  Grecians, 
that  you  may  long  preside  over  the  Greek  studies  in  our  metro- 
politan I'niversity,  and  reap  the  glory  due  to  your  abundant  and 
entliusin'Jtic  lnl)ours. 


MUttR.W  ^ND.(^H}K,  rB^NXKRSy  EIMN1J^H;GII. 


•  •    • 

•  •    I 


«      .       .    •   • 


1  am. 


\ 


Kdinburgh,  Det'emher  is.')!. 


our  most  obedient  Servant, 

JAMK.S  CLVDK. 


•    «    « 


TO  THE  READER. 


'I'liE  following  pages  contain  such  an  account  of  Romaic  and 
Modern  Greek  as  may  exhibit  to  the  classical  student  what 
has  really  become  of  the  Greek  language,  once  generally 
supposed  to  be  dead,  and  now  alleged  by  some  to  survive. 
This  account  will  materially  assist  the  inquiries  of  those  who 
would  enter  on  a  detailed  examination  of  the  survivinor  dialects, 
wdiether  by  reading  at  home,  or  by  visiting  Greece;  whilst 
the  merely  curious  will  find  in  it  that  summary  of  infor- 
mation and  examples  whicli  they  desiderate. 

A  dis(piisition  has   two  advantnges  in  the  present  case  over 
a   grammar.      From  the   nudtiplicity   of  dialects   in    Romaic, 
and   the    diversities  of  style   in    Modern    Greek,   both   have  a 
Protean  character,  and  what  is  thus  really  manifold  and  un- 
settled, is  aj)t   to  be  represented   as  single   and   definite    in   a 
grammar,   which  ])resu})j)oses  tlie   construction  of  model   para- 
digms.     Then,    into   a    disquisition     can     be    introduced    with 
greater  propriety  the  critical  and  historical   matter   which  the 
subject   demands.      Whilst   for   these    reasons   the    form    of  a 
grannnar    has    been   avoided,   few    grammatical   peculiarities   of 
Romaic    or    Modern    Greek    liave    been    left    unexplained,    so 
that   the  attentive   reader,    wlio    is  already   a   tolerable    Greek 
scholar,  will  find  himself  qualified  to  peruse  works  in  either. 
No  (piestion  is  raised  in  the  following  pages  concernintT  the 


VI 


TO  THE  READER. 


ancient  mode,  or  the  mode  now  practically  best,  of  pnniouiK-ing 
Greek,  because  justice  has  been  lately  done  to  these  subjects 
in  special  treatises,  by  Pennington  in  England,  and  by  Pro- 
fessor Blackie  in  Scotland.  Neither  are  such  (juestions  enter- 
tained as  the  followino- :  Of  what  advanta<re  is  a  knowled<re 
of  Modern  Greek  to  the  classical  student  ?  At  what  staire  of 
scholarship  should  the  student's  attention  be  called  to  Modern 
Greek?  Is  it  desirable  tliat  our  teachers  of  Greek  accustom 
their  pupils  to  conversation  in  the  modern  dialect?  Of  such 
questions  some  are  answered  by  the  mere  exhibition  of  what 
Modern  Greek  is,  and  others  must  wait  for  solution  till  British 
scholars  in  general  acfpiire  more  accurate  and  definite  notions 
of  Modern  Greek  than  they  yet  possess.  At  present  such 
questions  can  be  neitlier  intelligently  entertained  nor  fairly 
answered  by  tlie  great  majority  interested  in  them  ;  and  a 
warfare  of  extreme  views  is  all  that  can  result  from  precipitat- 
inix  their  discussion. 

A  considerable  array  of  facts  reixardino:  Modern  Greek  has 
been  set  before  the  British  public  of  late  years,  especially 
by  Mr  Corpe  in  London,  ^Ir  Donaldson  in  Edinburgh,  and 
the  several  reviewers  of  'rrikou[)es'  History  of  the  Greek  Re- 
volution. The  present  is  a  contribution  of  the  same  kind, 
but  with  this  peculiarity,  that  an  attenq)t  is  made  to  dis- 
tinguish, in  a  series  of  particulars,  the  Romaic  dialect  from 
Modern  Greek,  properly  so  called.  To  draw  this  distinction 
is  important,  as  otherwise  the  totality  of  surviving  Greek  is 
invested  with  the  characteristics  of  a  part,  and  its  approxima- 
tion to  the  ancient  dialects  underrated  or  exairfr^'rated,  accord- 
ino;  as  the  vulirar  or  the  i)olite  form  of  lan<juaixe  is  taken  as 
the  standard.  To  draw  this  distinction,  however,  is  exceed- 
ingly difficult ;  for,  as  usual  in  such  cases,  instead  of  a  boundary 
line,  there  exists  an  indefinite  border  territorv  between  the 
domains  of  popular  and  })olite  literature,  and  how  this  should 
be  shared  between  the  two  must  be  to  some  extent  matter  of 


TO  THE  READER. 


vn 


Opinion.  At  the  same  time,  that  there  does  exist  a  marked 
tlifterence  between  the  vulgar  and  literary  dialects  is  e\  ident  on 
the  most  cursory  inspection  of  both,  and  the  attempt  to  ascer- 
tain it,  if  successful,  will  be  all  the  more  meritorious  for  beino* 
difficult. 

THE  AUTHOR. 


ROMAIC  AND  MODEM  GREEK. 


'■ 


PART  I.— GENERAL  REMARKS. 

To  prevent  confusion  of  ideas,  it  is  necessary  to  define,  at  tlie 
outset,  the  sense  in  which  certain  designations  will  be  used  in  the 
sequel. 

The  term,  Ancient  Greek,  will  be  applied,  not  only  to  the 
compositions  called  Classical,  but  to  all  Greek  writings,  of  what- 
ever date,  composed  on  the  model  of  the  classical  vocabulary  and 
grammar.  The  term  Romaic  will  be  confined  to  those  popular 
dialects  which,  whensoever  they  arose,  are  known  to  have  existed 
under  the  Byzantine  empire,  and  which,  or  the  like  of  which, 
are  still  spoken  by  the  uneducated.  The  term  Modern  Greek 
will  be  given  to  that  language  in  which  the  laws  of  the  kingdom 
of  Greece  are  written,  and  wliich  is  acknowledged  by  the  Greeks 
everywhere,  as  their  present  literary  dialect. 

The  second  of  these  terms,  Romaic,  is  accepted,  merely  on  the 
ground  of  prescription ;  because,  suggesting  as  it  does,  a  Latin 
affinity,  it  is  calculated  to  convey  a  false  impression  regarding  the 
dialects  to  which  it  is  applied.  When  the  seat  of  empire  was 
removed  to  Constantinople,  the  emperors  retained  their  ancient 
title,  translated  however  into  Greek,  Bacu.iTg  'Pw/xa/wv ;  and  just  as, 
in  later  times,  the  victorious  Franks  gave  their  name  to  the  nation, 
country,  and  language  of  the  conquered  Gauls,  so  the  glorious 
name  of  Romans  passed  upon  th(i  race,  provinces,  and  dialects  of 
the  subjugated  Greeks.  Thus  the  term  Romaic  has  a  pohtical, 
not  at  all  a  literary  origin,  and  properly  describes  neither  the 
lineage  of  a  people,  nor  the  character  of  their  language,  but  the 
imperial  dynasty  l)y  which  they  were  governed. 


^  GENERAL  REMARKS. 

According  to  Apollonius,  tlie  Greeks,  at  a  very  early  period 
gratuitously  adopted  the  flimily  names  of  illustrious  Komans! 
Fully  two  centuries  before  Byzantium  became  Nsa  'Pc^/x^j,  being  on 
a  visit  to  Smyrna,  he  was  formally  invited  to  the  ranioniclfes- 
tival,  whicli  was  that  year  celebrated  there  ;  and  noticing,  among 
the  signatures  to  the  invitation,  a  number  of  Koman  irames,  as 
Lucullus  and  Fabricius,  he  addressed  a  sharp  rebuke  to  his 
Ionian  friends,  which  may  be  found  in  Philostratus,  Ei)istle  71. 
The  very  next  letter  of  the  same  collection  is  a  shorter,  but 
equally  pithy  reprimand,  administered  to  his  own  brother,  for 
the  assumption  of  a  Eoman  name :  and  to  the  prevalence  of 
this  Romanising  spirit  among  the  Greeks  some  would  ascribe 
the  facility,  with  which  they  afterwards  renounced  their  an- 
cestral designation  "EXXnng,  and  accepted  that  of  their  con- 
querors. 

Other  and  more  satisfactory  reasons,  however,  account  for  the 
change.     Not  only  the  dynasty,  the  administration,  and  the  army, 
m  the  East,  were  called  Eoman,  according  to  political  propriety  ; 
but,  in   the  fourth  century  at  least,  the  Asiatic  provinces  of  the 
empire  were  called  Komania-a  nomenclature  of  which  modern 
geography  has  preserved  a  vestige  in  Europe,  viz.,  Roumelia, 
t.e.,  country  of  the  Romans.      Nothing,  then,  was  more  natural 
than  that  the  inhabitants  should  bear  a  name  correspondinrr  with 
that  of  the  government  under  which  they  lived,  and  the  ten-itory 
which  they  occupied.     But,  perhaps,  of  all  circumstances  givincr 
currency  to  the  appellation  'Po^/xa/o/  among  the  Greeks  themselves^ 
and  for  them,  among  the  surrounding  non-Christian  populations, 
the  most  decisive  was  the  acknowledgment  of  Christianity  by  the 
Roman  emperors,  in  consequence  of  which  Roman  became  a  sy- 
nonyme  for  Christian,  whilst  the  idea  of  idolatry  continued  to  be 
connected  with  "exX^^s;,     Accordingly  the   Greeks  were  called 
Bourn  m  the  heading  of  the  80th  cha])ter  of  the  Koran,  as  indeed 
they  are  to  this  day  by  the  Arabs  and  Turks. 

Since,  then,  the  Greeks  accepted  the  designation  'Poi/xa/o/,  and 
the  countries  occui)ied  by  them  received  a  cognate  appellation, 
most  naturally  their  spoken  language  was  called  'Po^/xa/x;,'.  It 
borrowed  as  little  from  the  language  of  the  Romans  as  did  French 
from  the  language  of  the  Franks :  but  even  had  it  not  admitted 
a  single  Latin  word,  the  foreign  designation,  which  had  passed 


C.ENEKAL  REMARKS. 


upon   the  people  and  their  territory,  would  not  the   less  have 
reached  also  their  lanauaire. 

The  term  Modern  Greek  is  adopted,  as  being  both  historically 
and  descriptively  correct.     In  their  popular  songs,  the  Greeks  call 
themselves  variously  *P&;/xa/"o/,  lyaiKoi,  and  "EXXy^vb;,     Till  the  be- 
ginning of  the  present  century,  the  fii-st  of  these  was  the  current  na- 
tional designation  everywhere,  as  it  still  is  among  the  uneducated  in 
Greece  enslaved ;  but,  at  the  revolutionary  era,  the  Greeks  re- 
called their  ancient  titles  of  glory,  the  liberated  portion  of  their  ter- 
ritory reassumed,  with  independence,  its  ancient  name,  ??  'EXXag, 
the  inhabitants  were  called  0/  "EXXr^vsg,  and  their  cultivated  Ian. 
guage  7}  Nio-£AXr,viyJ,,  i,e.^  Modern  Greek.     Nor  is  this  term,  like 
the  one  already  discussed,  a  historical  misnomer,  requiring  to  be 
explained,  because  calculated  to  mislead.     The  language  in  ques- 
tion is  all  that  its  name  suggests,  Greek,  in  respect  of  its  voca- 
bulary and  accidence,  to  some  extent  even  in  its  syntax,  but  dis- 
tinguished from  the  ancient  by  its  reflecting  exactly  those  ideas 
and  modes  of  thought  which,  constituting  the  common  stock  of 
modern  civilisation,  tend  to  assimilate  all  modern  languarres,  so 
that  phrase  answers  to  phrase,  and  word  to  word,  in  them  more 
exactly  than  is  found  to  be  the  case  in  translating  from  an  ancient 
into  a  modern  dialect. 

At  Constantinople,  Smyrna,  and  Corfu,  no  less  than  at  Athens, 
newspapers,  almanacs,  school-books,  in  short,  all  literary  produc- 
tions, not  excepting  the  most  ephemeral,  as  hand-bills,  intended 
for  general  circulation,  are  now  printed  in  iModern  Greek,  as 
distinguished  from  Romaic.  If  only  in  free  Greece  and  in  the 
Ionian  islands  this  cultivated  dialect  is  heard  in  the  senate  and 
at  the  bar,  it  is  everywhere  heard  from  the  pulpit ;  if  only  in 
Athens  it  is  the  vehicle  of  professorial  instruction,  it  is  the  medium 
of  the  schoolmaster's  humbler  tuition  wherever  a  Greek  commu- 
nity exists. 

As  for  the  term  Tf^aiyM,  which  through  the  Latin  has  passed 
into  the  languages  of  Euro])e,  it  was  never  a  universally  admit- 
ted national  designation  among  the  ancient  Greeks,  and  owes  its 
acceptance  by  those  of  later  times  to  its  currency  among  all 
other  Europeans,  and  to  the  proscription  under  which  the  desio-- 
nation  "EXXr^ng  was  laid  by  the  Greeks  of  the  middle  ages,  in  con- 
sequence of  its  suggesting  the  idolatry  of  their  ancestors.     Now 


4  GENERAL  REMAP.KS. 

that  the  prouder  appellation  "EXXxiVs;  has  been  restored,  and  that 
the  Ciceronian  dinn'nutive  groeculi  is  suggested  to  every  schohir 
by  Tpaixoi,  this  latter  tenu  has  fiillen  into  universal  disrepute. 

The  distinction  between  Romaic  and  Modern  Greek  requires 
to  be  insisted  on,  as  it  is  not  recognised  by  British  scliolars  in 
general,  and  is  systematically  ignored  by  a  few  Greeks,  or  rather, 
to  speak  within  my  own  knowledge,  by  one.  This  distinguished 
individual  is  M.  Sophocles,  professor  of  Greek  in  Cambridge 
(U.  S.)  University,  and  author  of  a  Romaic  Grammar,  published 
in  1842,  a  most  valuable  auxiliarv  to  the  Eiidish  student  of 
Romaic,  properly  so  called.'  In  his  preface  to  this  work,  ^f. 
KSophocles  says  of  "  Romaic,  or,  as  it  is  often  called,  Modern 
Greek,"  thus  confounding  the  tw^o  : — "  It  may  with  propriety  be 
said  to  bear  the  same  relation  to  the  Greek,  that  is,  the  laniiuatre 
of  the  ancient  Greeks,  that  the  Itahan  bears  to  the  Latin."  The 
testimonv  of  a  Greek  concerninor  the  Yw'incr  lamniafre  of  his  coun- 
trymen  will  not  be  considered  as  necessarilv  conclusive  bv  anv 
one  acquainted  with  Greek  literary  partizanship.  In  the  following 
pages  no  attempt  is  made  to  conceal  either  th'e  internal  dissolu- 
tion of  ancient  Greek,  or  its  admixture  with  forei<in  elements,  as 
these  appear  in  the  Romaic  dialects;  but  however  nearlv,  in 
regard  to  them,  the  judgment  of  ^[.Sophocles  may  approach 
the  truth,  in  regard  to  Modern  Greek,  it  is  a  glaring  mistake. 
As  his  grammar,  being  written  in  English,  has  probably  in- 
fluenced the  o})inions  of  British  scholars,  I  shall  borrow  two 
examples  from  his  own  Chrestomathy,  one  of  Romaic,  properly 
so  called  (see  p.  18),  and  another  of  Modern  Greek  (see  p.  41), 
and  the  reader  will  tlius  have  an  opportunity  of  judging,  from 
his  own  specimens,  whether  or  not  M.  So}>hocles  has  confounded 
things  that  differ. 

The  difference  between  Romaic  and  Modern  Greek  cannot  be 
better  represented  in  brief  than  by  that  which  exists  between 
broad  Scotch  and  good  English.  There  are  phrases  in  the  one 
unknown  to  the  other, like  the  famous  ?ipffoiv  o  glaur,w\uc\i  all  the 

^  Prefixed  to  Ducange's  Lexicon  of  Mediaeval  Greek  is  a  succinct  Romaic 
grammar,  the  basis,  I  presume,  of  most  subsequent  ones.  This  honour  is 
ascribed  by  :M.  Minoidas  Mynas  (see  p.  44  of  the  preface  to  his  "  Theorie  de 
la  Grammaire,  et  de  la  langue  Grecque")  to  another  Romaic  grammar,  pub- 
lished at  Paris  in  1709,  by  a  missionary,  Thomas  Parisinus. 


GENEUAL  REMARKS.  5 

English  of  George  IV.,  and  his  boasted  knowledge  of  Scotch  to 
boot,  were  unable  to  explain  :  the  truncation  and  fusion  of  words, 
incident  to  all  merely  colloquial  dialects,  and  prevalent  in  the 
one,  are  rejected  by  the  other :  the  one  is  subdivided  into  innu- 
merable varieties,  under  the  tyranny  of  local  influences;  the 
other  triumphs  over  provincialism,  and  varies,  not  according  to 
the  birthplace,  but  according  to  the  education  of  him  who  uses 
it :  the  one  has  no  literature  except  proverbs  and  popular  poetry; 
the  other  is  the  vehicle  of  all  knowledge  to  an  entire  people : 
and  just  as  in  Scotland  the  educated  recur  to  the  vulgar  dialect, 
for  the  sake  of  intelligibility,  when  discoursing  with  the  illiterate, 
and,  in  certain  circumstances,  even  when  discoursing  with  one 
another,  to  avoid  the  ap])earance  of  affectation,  or  for  the  sake 
of  forcible,  familiar,  or  comical  expressions  ;  so  in  Greece,  where 
Romaic  is  still  the  language  of  the  nurseiy  and  the  playground, 
and  where,  from  the  rarity  of  preaching  and  the  recency  of 
schools,  the  people  in  general  are  not  yet  familiarised  with 
Modern  Greek,  as  are  the  humbler  classes  in  Scotland  with 
good  English,  there  is  a  large  admixture  of  Romaic  in  the  con- 
versational style  even  of  the  educated  classes. 

Although  the  Ionian  islands  have  been  a  British  depen- 
dency for  nearly  forty  years,  and  Modern  Greek  has  made  such 
progress  even  there,  where  the  Romaic  dialect  is  so  exceedingly 
corrupt,  that  in  1852  it  supplanted  Italian  in  the  administra- 
tion of  government  and  justice,  it  has  not  received  so  much 
public  notice  in  the  United  Kingdom  as  on  the  Continent. 
Since  1828  it  has  been  publicly  taught  in  Paris,  under  the 
patronage  of  Government ;  and  in  Germany  it  has  become  still 
more  extensively  known  through  the  connection  between  the 
court  of  Athens  and  those  of  Bavaria  and  Oldenburg.  Many 
learned  Germans  speak  it  fluently,  and  one  of  them,  Ross,  for- 
merly professor  in  the  University  of  Athens,  has  enriched  its 
literature  by  a  work  on  Archaeology.  In  this  country,  however, 
^Modern  Greek  is  still  generally  held  to  be  a  mere  euphuism  for 
Romaic ;  nor  is  a  bare  representation  of  grammatical  forms  ade- 
quate to  remove  this  impression.  The  surprise,  indeed,  with  whicli 
a  British  scholar  marks  the  coincidence  between  the  grammatical 
paradigms  of  Modern  Greek,  as  given,  for  example,  by  Mr  Corpe, 
and  those  of  the  ancient  Attic,  is  necessarily  mingled  with  doubt, 


G 


GENERAL  KEMAKKS. 


and  succeeded  by  questions,  wlilcli  no  mere  graiinnar  can  sohe, 
regarding  the  time  and  mode  of  the  apparent  lingual  resurrection. 
It  is  not  pretended  that  the  age  of  Pericles  has   returned  to 
Greece ;  nor  will  any  scholar,  whom  native  good  sense  or  sound 
philosophy  has  preserved  from  pedantry,  be  either  surprised  or 
displeased  that  Modern    Greek   should    bear   the   unequivocal 
stamp  of  the  nineteenth  century,  to  which  it  belongs.     French 
has  changed  in  spite  of  the  Academy's  dictionary:  when  certain 
patriotic  Germans  combined  against  the  Gallicisms  which  had 
crept  into  the  vaterlandische    Sprache,    it  was  found  that   the 
/amose  Kerle  and  delidOse  Bursche  could  not  be  expelled ;  and 
whoever  compares  the  present  features  of  any  living  language 
with  those  it  bore  three  or  four  centuries  ago,  will  learn''  holv 
wide  are  the  limits  within  which  a  language  may  vary  without 
losmg  Its  identity.     Greek,  instead  of  being  an  exception  to  the 
general  rule,  is  its  most  signal  example  ;  for  no  other  lanrrua^re 
possessed  originally  so  great  wealth  of  grammatical  forms  and 
syntactical  aiTangements,  nor  has  any  other  suffered  2000  years 
of  decline,  and  yet  survived:    in  other  words,  the  vulnerable 
points  were  more  numerous,  and  the  period  of  time,  during  which 
tlie  work  of  degradation  went  on,  has  been  longer  in  the'^case  of 
Greek  than  of  any  other.     In  regard  to  such  a  language  espe- 
cially, it  is  preposterous  to  set  up  a  grammatical  decalocnie,  to 
which  nothing  may  at  any  time  be  added,   and   from  which 
nothing  may  at  any  time  be  taken  away.     It  is  conceded  that  a 
great  change  has  passed  upon  Greek  ;  nay,  that  whoever,  for  the 
purpose  of  solecism  hunting,  should  applv  the  Attic  standard  to 
M(.dern  Greek,  might  commit  a  slaucrhter,  but  could  not  find 
sport,  so  abundant  is  the  game  :  but  such  a  one  is  invited  to  test 
his  system  of  lingual  uniformity  throughout  all  ages,  by  apply- 
mg  it  to  the  earliest  as  well  as  to  the  latest  specimens  of  Greek 
He  will  then  be  seen  taking  Homer  himself  rudely  to  task,  after 
the  example  of  Theodonis,  a  famous  grammarian  of  the  15th 
centuiy,   who  enriched   his   chapter  on    solecisms  with  nearly 
thirty  examples,  five-sixths  of  which  he  found  in  the  Iliad  and 
Odyssey  I 

When  several  things  really  different  have  long  been  included 
under  one  name,  the  implied  diversity  is  often  lost  sight  of,  and 
the  common  designation  interpreted  partially,  each  man  putting 


GENERAL  REMARKS. 


the  part  he  knows  best  for  the  whole.  How  many,  for  example, 
interpreting  Protestantism,  describe  merely  their  own  sect,  prv  ' 
suming  unity  in  the  thing  from  unity  in  the  name,  and  that  the 
whole  resembles  their  own  little  part.  The  same  often  happens 
with  the  phrase  Ancient  Greek^  the  diversity  of  dialects,  wdiicli  it 
comprehends  but  does  not  suggest,  being  forgotten,  and  the 
Attic,  as  better  known  than  the  others,  being  practically  put  for 
Ancient  Greek  in  general.  From  this  very  cause  even  Romaic 
is  often  supposed  to  difier  from  Ancient  Greek,  in  particulars 
where  it  really  agrees  -svitli  one  or  other  of  its  dialects.  How 
many,  for  example,  learning  that  the  rough  breathing  is 
neglected  in  the  modern  pronunciation  of  the  Greeks,  cry  out 
against  the  spoliation  of  the  ancient,  forgetting  how^  little  the 
rough  breathing  was  used  in  -ZEolic,  and  that  the  other  ancient 
dialects,  by  losing  the  digamma,  set  the  example  of  delinquency 
in  this  direction  !  How  many,  hearing  one  Athenian  schoolboy 
say  to  another  on  some  extraordinarily  productive  holiday  :  "E;/w 
rf'iT;  bpayjiaTr  rro^uig  'iyjtg  sah^  would  signalise  the  lamentable 
confusion  of  the  accusative  with  the  dative,  forgetting  that  the 
same  existed  once  more  in  the  -^olic !  How  manv,  in  convers- 
ing  with  modern  Greeks,  are  scandalised  at  first  by  their  constant 
use  of  y.a/xvw  in  the  sense  of  to/o),  not  recollecting  that  line  of 
Homer  (Ihad  IV.  187)— 


(C    rwy 


The  belt  of  mail  w^iich  braziers  made. 

But  although  neither  Romaic  nor  ^lodern  Greek  could  derive 
any  special  illustrations  from  the  non-Attic  dialects  of  antiquity, 
I  should  still  appeal  to  the  reader,  with  tables  of  the  ancient  dia- 
lects before  him,  and  observing  how  much  they  differ  from  one 
another  in  accentuation  and  orthography,  and  consequently  in 
pronunciation,  in  grammatical  forms,  and  even  in  their  vocabu- 
laries, whether  a  narrow^  and  churlish  criticism  be  not  peculiarly 
out  of  place  in  respect  to  Greek. 

Be  it  remembered,  also,  that  the  ancient  dialects  differed  not 
only  from  one  another,  but  from  themselves  at  different  epochs, 
as  the  student  knows  to  his  cost  in  passing  from  the  writers  of  one 
age  to  those  of  another.  No  strange  demand,  therefore,  is  made 
by  Modem  Greek,  when  it  claims  to  be  recognised  as  a  dialect  or 


8 


ROMAIC. 


modification  of  the  Greek  language.  Its  vocabulaiy  contains 
few  words  which  liave  not  a  classic  parentage,  and  most  of  them 
are  genuinely  Greek,  both  in  form  and  signification  ;  whilst  the 
novelties  which  its  vocabulary  has  admitted,  as  also  the  approxi- 
mation of  its  structure  to  that  of  modern  languages  in  general, 
prove  only  that  it  is  not  the  pet  invention  of  a  few  learned  men, 
but  the  genuine  expression  of  changes  in  the  language,  which 
have  always  run  parallel  with  the  fortunes  of  the  nation. 

A  distinct  general  notion  of  how  Modern  Greek  arose,  can 
be  given  in  few  words.  It  is  a  compromise  between  Ancient 
Greek  and  Romaic  brought  about  by  the  necessity  of  communi- 
cating to  a  people,  no  longer  understanding  the  former,  a  mass 
and  variety  of  knowledge  which  the  latter  could  not  convey. 
Hence  it  preserved  as  much  of  Romaic  as  was  required  by  in- 
telh'gibility,  and  admitted  as  much  of  Ancient  Greek  as  was 
consistent  with  the  same  prime  exigency.  The  very  artifice 
which  was  eniployed  in  England  to  facilitate  the  amal<ramation 
of  Anglo-Saxon  with  Xorman  French  is  employed  now  in  Greece ; 
thousands  of  ancient  words  and  phrases  passing  into  the  popular 
vocabulaiy  by  being  coupled  with  their  Romaic  synonymes,  after 
the  exact  type  of  the  often-quoted  "  assemble  and  meet  together^'" 
in  the  English  prayer  book.  It  may  be  added  that,  the  elements 
to  be  fused  in  jModern  Greek  being  cognate,  it  possessed  from 
the  beginning  a  homogeneity  which  never  could  result  from  tlie 
amalgamation  of  Anglo-Saxon  and  Norman  French,  and  that, 
from  the  infinite  superiority  of  the  one  element  over  the  other, 
it  recedes,  as  education  is  diftused,  from  Romaic,  and  advances 
towards  the  ancient  model. 


PART  II.-ROMAIC. 

The  variety  of  dialects  included  under  the  term  Romaic  is 
very  gi-eat.  Ducange,  in  §  9  of  the  preface  to  his  Lexicon  of 
Mediajval  Greek,  mentions  that  Symeon  Cabasilas  numbered 
seventy  in  his  time.  Villoison,  who  accompanied  the  French 
ambassador  to  Constantinople  in  1785,  and  afterwards  visited 
Mount  Athos  and  the  Greek  islands,  enumerated  seventy-two, 
in  imitation,  perhaps,  of  Clemens  Alexandnnus,    accordln^r  to 


ROMAIC. 


9 


whom  seventy-two  languages  arose  upon  the  dispersion  of  man- 
kind. Kodrikas  in  his  M;>.gr?j  r^g  xoivr,;  *EXX?jwx^g  dtaX'sxroVy  pub- 
lished at  Paris  in  1818,  justly  remarks  that  the  number  seventy- 
two  is,  on  the  one  hand,  too  small  to  include  all  merely  topical 
dialects,  and,  on  the  other,  too  large  for  those  having  grand 
characteristics  in  common.  He  divides  the  Romaic  dialects  into 
twelve;  but  the  most  intelligible  classification  is  that  which, 
taking  the  element  of  corruption  for  its  principle,  divides  them 
into  three,  viz.,  those  of  the  islands,  corrupted  with  Italian,  those 
in  the  Peloponnesus,  Macedonia,  Thessaly,  and  E pirns,  corrupted 
with  Sclavonic,  and  those  of  Thrace  and  Asia  Minor,  corrupted 
with  Turkish.  These  dialects  differ  from  each  other  in  their 
vocabularies,  accidence,  and  pronunciation  to  such  an  extent 
that,  were  a  Peloponnesian  peasant  to  meet  one  from  the  shores 
of  the  Black  Sea,  much  of  their  discourse  would  be  mutually 
unintelligible.  Details  on  such  a  subject  would  consequently  be 
endless  as  well  as  frivolous  ;  but  the  following  general  remarks 
will  sufiice  to  show  what  a  ruin  of  Ancient  Greek  these  dialects 
present. 

The  vocabularies  of  them  all  are  not  only  con-upt,  as  havlno- 
borrowed  more  or  less  from  the  languages  of  European  and  Asi- 
atic conquerors,  but  poor,  as  being  determined  by  the  few  wants 
and  ideas  of  an  illiterate  peasantry.  E.  G,,  having  frequently  heard 
(frofia  in  the  mouths  of  the  common  people  at  Athens,  but  never 
ffr6,(iaTog,  I  asked  an  intelligent  Greek  what  was  the  Romaic 
genitive  of  ffrofxa,  and  he  answered  that  it  had  none.^  I  then 
asked  how  the  peasants  would  say  rb  rou  crofjiarog  /xsysdog,  to 
which  he  answered  that  Romaic  contained  few  such  general- 
izations, and  in  the  present  instance  could  express  only  the  con- 
crete ;  (,€,,  syji  TO  (fTOfMa  ,(isyaAo(v)—hQ  has  a  big  mouth.  This 
statement  I  afterwards  found  to  be  correct,  and  it  thus  appears 
that  the  Romaic  dialects,  by  possessing  few  abstract  terms,  have 
one  grand  characteristic  in  common  with  those  of  barbarous  tribes 
in  general ;  for  as  water  can  never  rise  above  its  source,  so  the  lan- 
guage of  a  people  can  never  rise  above  their  sphere  of  thought. 

In  respect  to  the  pronunciation  of  Romaic,  I  shall  on^  ob- 

'  On  further  inquiry  I  found  that  fTo/u,dTov,  as  if  from  a  new  nominative 
rrk/Mxro*,  is  the  Uouiaic  genitive  of  <rro^K  ;  but  it  is  h'ttle  used.     See  p.  11. 


10 


ROMAIC. 


serve  that,  as  it  disregards  quantity  altogetlier,  so  its  accentua- 
tion IS  not  amenable  to  the  ancient  canons.     In  many  cases  the 
misaccentuation  arises  from  a  tendency  to  preserve  the  pLice  of 
the  accent  unchancred  throughout  all  the  inHoctions  of  a  word  : 
thus,  Romaic  lias  ddn^ro;,  ddmrou,  instead  of  ^amrov,  and   f^owa;j 
for  the  feminine  of  ^M^f^og,  instead  of  f^o.Z/x^  accordin<r  to  the 
analogy  of  classic  accentuation,  or  ^pcyi/xo;  accordincr  To  classic 
usage.     But  no  rule  can  be  given  ;  for,  whereas  Komaic  savs 
a^dpc-ros,  a^dpcrrou,   and   ayysKo;,  ciyy.Xou,   preserving  the  i>lace  k 
the  accent  in  the  genitive,  notwithstanding^  the  change  of  quantity 
in  the  final  syllable,  in  the  nominative  plural  it  makes  Mpu^-rro.  and 
^77s>,oi,  moving  forward  the  accent,  though  the  last  svllable  re- 
mams  short.     The  place  of  the  accent  is  frequently  affected  by 
the  synizesis  of  two  vowel-sounds,  Komaic   being  particularly 
fond  of  this  contraction.     Thus  in  f  ^r/a,  ^a,a/a,  and  ^^ia,,  (he 
took),  the  vowels  /«  are  pronounced  in  one  syllable,  like  ya  in 
yard,  so  that  ir/«..c  becomes  a  trisyllable,    and   is   r)ronounced 
^^/o.^s,  whilst,  in  the  other  two  words,  /  being  as  truly  a  consonant 
as  y  is  in  yard,  the  accent  necessarily  falls  on  the  final  a,  and  the 
words  are  i)ronounced  and  written  ^^nd,  ^cadid.      The  roucrh 
breathing  is  frequently  replaced  by  y,  ^s  yd^^^a  for  a./xa :  and 
this  7,  being  frequently  inserted  in  the  middle  of  words,  to  pre- 
vent the  hiatus  where  two  vowels  meet,  as   in  xaiyc,,    xXa!y,j, 
which  are  the  Komaic  forms  of  xaic,  xXa/c,  is  justly  rerrarded 
as  representing  the  ^Eolic  digamma.  " 

What  an  abridgment  of  the  ancient  grammatical  forms  has 
taken  place  in  Romaic  will  appear  from  the  following  review  :— 
1.  The  perittosyllabic  nouns  of  Ancient  Greek  have  all  but 
disappeared  ;  and  that  in  three  ways.  First,  the  accusative 
plural  of  masculine  perittosyllabics  has  been  made  the  nomina- 
tive of  a  new  noun  in  the  first  declension ;  so  that,  instead  of  6 
avnp,  0  yspc.  6  Za,,Xs-.g,  Romaic  has  o  d.bpag,  6  yspo^rag,  6  Za„Km; 
Secondly,  in  regard  to  feminine  perittosvllabics  their  accusative 
singular,  when  ending  in  a,  has  been  adopted  as  the  nomina- 
tive of  a  new  noun  also  in  the  first  declension ;  so  that,  instead 

Ot     ri,  yu^n,  n  !Mrirnp,  h  duydrnp,   Romaic    has    n  yo.aiTca,  ii  !Mr,ripa  h 

&uyare,a       Thirdly,  and  most  frequently   of  all,  in   regard   to 
perittosyllabics  of   whatever  gender,  diminutives  in  /o.,  formed 


KOMAIC. 


11 


from  the  root,  have  supplanted  their  primitives,  a  process  which, 
besides  that  it  is  in  strict  accordance  with  classic  analogy,  the 
following  list  will  sufficiently  e;. plain  : — 


From    a/ J,  ai/Oj 


99 
99 

99 


Off,  opiog^ 

drtOujv,  drtdovog^ 

yjip,  yjtphg, 
'To-jgy  Todhg, 
odoug,  ctdovrog^ 
xo'/x/xa,  xo'Mixarog 


Romaic    has   diy/dm,  ^yiht{ov) 
6(pidioVy     <pibi(ov) 

ur,hC]/dov\ 

rrobdpiiovS 
obovriov^    bovTiiov) 
•/.oiJ,;x,dri{oy^  ^ 


99 
9> 
99 
99 

99 
99 

5? 


95 
J5 


Many  nouns  in  a;  of  the  first  declension  have*  a  perittosyllabic 
plural,  as  -^apdg — a  fisherman,  |)lural  -^apdbsg,  or  -^l^apdba/g,  g  and 
a/  being  pronounced  alike  by  the  moderns  ;  but  the  only  nouns, 
claiming  a  perittosyllabic  genitive  singular,  are  a  few  neuters  in 
a,  as  cro/xa,  ffci/za  which  make  ffro/xdrovy  ffc^j/jbdrov,  and  a  class  of 
verbals  unknown  to  Ancient  Greek,  as 

ypx-^i/xov,    ypa-^iiMarog  writing. 

Va-\)///jtoi/,     '  pa-^Ijuarog  sewing. 

xXd-^ifMov  '/.Xa-^iij^arog  weeping. 

However,  I  never  myself  heard  these  perittosyllablic  genitives 
from  the  mouths  of  tlie  people,  and  several  native  Greeks  have 
made  to  me  the  same  acknowledgment.^  As  for  a  very  few 
feminines  in  ig,  as  t&a/c,  yv^Gig,  ydptg,  their  Romaic  genitive  does 
not  dilier  from  the  nominative,  except,  indeed,  when  the  final  g 
is  dropped  in  the  nominative  itself.  In  the  Art/Morr/.d  "Ao;aara  of 
Zampelius,  j?  to>./  3  is  met  with  for  rj  To/jg,  so  that  this  noun  mi(rht 

'  For  the  reason  of  these  parentheses  enclosing:  the  last  syllables,  see  p.  13. 

»  Many  nouns  are  in  fact  imdeclined  by  the  people,  in  illustration  of  which 
I  may  be  allowed  an  anecdote.  When  the  steamer  in  which  I  returned  from 
Greece  was  opposite  Mej^ara,  a  well  educated  Greek  remarked  for  mv  infor- 
mation that  a  well  is  still  called  <pe^«?  hy  the  Megaraeans,  and  not  T>,yoih(ov) 
as  elsewhere  ;  upon  which  1  asked  how  the  Megaraeans  formed  the  genitive 
of  (Pe*«e-  After  some  hesitation  he  answered,  that  he  was  sure  they  did  not 
say  ^^ixTOi,  and  supposed  they  used  TnyahoZ,  as  do  the  common  people  else- 
where. It  is  just  as  likely,  however,  that  the  Megaraeans  dispense  with  the 
genitive,  that  is,  with  a  separate  desinence  for  the  .genitive  altogether. 

^  Some  names  of  places  admitted  into  our  geographies  as  Tripoli,  Napoli, 
are  really  Romaic  nominatives  of  this  kind  from  t^/toXh,  ^td'roXts ;  or  Romaic 
accusatives,  for,  as  will  be  aftiruards  remarked,  the  final  v  of  T^i^oXtv,  Std^oxiv 
is  not  pronounced  in  Romaic. 


12 


ROMAIC. 


be  written  as  of  the  first  declension,  rj  toX^j,  r^jg  toay,;,  /  and  r,  hauur 
pronounced  exactly  alike.  But  then,  in  the  same  collection  oT 
popular  songs,  occurs  rj  yh  for  r,  yr,,  where  the  nominative,  in- 
stead of  dropping  its  own  g,  as  in  the  case  of  ^a/j,  assumes  that 
of  the  genitive ;  which  leads  me  to  remark  that,  notwithstanding 
a  general  tendency  to  regularity  in  its  declensions,  Komaic,  by 
the  endless  anomalies  that  appear  on  a  minute  examination,  sets 
all  gi-ammar  at  defiance.  A  broad  and  striking  fact,  however,  is 
contained  in  the  statement  that  the  perittosyllabic  nouns  of 
Ancient  Greek  have  all  but  disappeared  from  Romaic. 

For  the  means  by  which  tliis  change  has  been  effected,  prece- 
dents of  considerable  or  even  high  antiquity  can'  be  adduced. 
The  use  of  diminutives  in  form,  not  in  sense,  is  characteristic  of 
all  popular  dialects,  witness  the  housie,  wifie,  burnie,  boatie,  etc., 
of  Scottish  poetry ;  and  scholars  may  become  more  tolerant  of 
their  prevalence  in  Romaic,  by  considering  how  they  abound  in 
the  ancient  comedies,  particuhiVly  in  the  'eV^vt;  of  Aristoplianes. 
Then  again,  Suidas  gives  not  only  Uap  but  sV^z/^a,  and  Hesychius 
not  only  /x^r^jp,  but  MTBipu  ;  in  both  which  cases  a  new  nomina- 
tive in  the  first  declension  seems  to  have  been  formed  from  the 
accusative  singular  of  a  feminine  iierittosyllabic.  In  line  71  of 
the  Homeric  Hymn  to  Venus  (No.  4  in  Matthias'  edition, 
Leipsic,  1805) — 


a 


'Ap'ATOi  rraf^bd-Ktsg  n  doai  rrpoTidbc^^j  dy.opr^Toi' 


.t 


T^oxaa^v  cannot  be  from  t^^J,  ^^oxo,-,  but  from  t/>oxcc?,  rr^iyMoi : 
that  is,  tlie  accusative  plural  of  rr^hl  has  been  assumed  as  a  new 
nominative  sinijular. 

That,  in  the  most  Ancient  Greek,  perittosyllabics  existed  some- 
times under  the  isosyllabic  form  also,  appears  from  the  followin< 
examples : — 

mg,  ho'j,  m  Iliad  I.   469  for  hua,  r^wrof 

xg.^/xoc,  x5.^,aoD,      „      „  XIII.       28   „   xL^/x^.  -aJvo; 

IJ^d^ruoog,  iMaorloou     Odyss.  XVI.     423  „  .^doruo  .^oo; 
yi-koc,  y.Xou  „        „  XX.      346  „  y'sL;]  y'o,r^roi 

Singularly  enough,  Romaic  contains  some  anomahes  of  a  like 

nature,    as    a^^xog,    dpdxog,    yho;,   yaooz,    for   r^oym^    hodx,ujv,    y',,ts>,. 


ROMAIC. 


13 


2.  From  the  loss  of  the  dative,  and  the  non-pronunciation  of 
tlio  final  V  in  the  accusative,  Romaic  nouns,  excepting  those  in 
05,  ov,  have,  like  English  substantives,  only  one  distinction  of 
case  in  either  number. 

To  avoid  the  humming  sound  of  the  final  ^?  Romaic  sometimes 
assumes  after  it  an  f,  but  oftener,  particularly  in  the  case  of  neuters, 
rejects  it  altogether,  saying,  e.g.,  ^vm  for  gwvov,  and  ,a/x^o  for 
/x/xpo'i/.  The  only  instances  of  such  onu'ssion,  in  classic  Greek,  are 
furnished  by  the  article  and  some  pronouns;  for,  according  to 
analogy,  the  neuters  ro,  o,  dvrh,  rouro,  szsno,  a/Xo  must  orio-inally 
have  been  rhv,  ov,  ahrlv,  roOrov,  ejtsTvov,  aXXoK  That,  however  which 
was  exceptional  in  Ancient  Greek,  is  characteristic  of  Romaic. 
Hence  the  transformation  which  diminutives  in  lov  have  under- 
gone, 'yidi  (ov),  'pdi  {ov)  etc.,  (see  p.  11)  being  pronounced  and 
^^ritten  'y/^t,  ^(pihi  etc.  First  lov  was  contracted  into  iv,  as  it  is 
still  pronounced  in  Cyprus,  and  as  it  is  found  written  in  inscrip- 
tions of  the  2d  and  8d  centuries  ;i  and  then  the  final  v  was 
dro})ped  according  to  the  prevalent  Romaic  pronunciation. 

The  final  v,  characteristic  of  the  accusative  singular  in  isosyl- 
labics,  having  been  dropped,  that  case  remained  undistinguishable 
in  Romaic  proimnciation  from  the  dative  ;  and  this  circumstance, 
as  also  the  identity  of  these  cases  in  the  iEolic  plural  of  the  first 
declension,  which  form  Romaic  has  preserved,  may  partly  account 
for  the  loss  of  the  dative.  Some  consider  that  Romaic  has  pre- 
served the  dative  in  such  phrases  as  &iiayd^irt,  rrfog  rouTotg^  but 
these  remains  of  the  dative  are  in  Romaic  mere  adverbial  expres- 
sions. 

The  dative,  then,  being  left  out  of  consideration,  it  is  evident, 
even  from  the  ancient  declensions,  that  neuters  have  only  one 
distinction  of  case  in  either  number  ;  and  as  respects  other 
Romaic  nouns,  excepting  always  those  in  og,  ov,  the  same  will 
appear  to  be  the  case  from  the  following  paradigms  : — 


Sincr.    rifJLsp-a 


-a? 


ys^ovT-ag 
-a 


rsyvir-Tjg 


*  See  Nos.  506,  704  of  Boekh's  collection,  where  ixivfi^tv  and  ^/X»j^^ 
occur  instead  of  iktvfiipiov,  and  (piXn/jLoiriov. 


7 IV 


14 


ROMAIC. 

Plur.          -aig 

•aTg 

yif>Qvr-a 

'dbaig 

-aig 

'SJV 

-CUV 

-dboiv 

-utv 

-dig 

-a/-5 

-dhatg 

-aig 

-aig 

-aTg 

-ddaig 

-aig 

AH  mention  of  tlie  dual  is  omitted,  because  it  is  wanting  in 
Romaic,  as  it  was  also  in  the  yEolic  dialect. 

3.  The  genders  of  Romaic  nouns  are  not  far  from  beiii<T 
merged  into  one  prevailing  neuter.  This  result  is  owing  to  the 
invasion  of  diminutives  in  m,  whicli  have  supplanted  isosylhi- 
bic  as  well  as  perittosjllabic  masculines  and  feniinines.  Of  the 
latter  examples  may  be  found  in  p.  11,  and,  of  the  former,  let 
these  suffice,  xa»a:,(«)  fi-om  y.d=uZo;,  r;,,/(<,^)  from  rojo,-,  ■Trr/d6,{ov) 
from  -rrr/^,  and  «^a>.,( ..)  from  «f  a>.^.  Sometimes  even  without  the 
form  of  a  diminutive,  the  neuter  termination  is  assumed ;  as 
Qouvh{v)  instead  of  Jo^/w's. 

4.  The  adjectives  in  Romaic  affect,  both  in  declension  and 
comparison,  a  greater  regularity  than  in  ancient  Greek.     Thus, 
mstead   of  fi^ya;,  ,aiya>.„,   f,iya,    Romaic    has   /x.yaXo;,  ,x,yu>.„, 
/ii'/aAi,{;).     Again,  such  adjectives  as  <ppm/j,o;,  FvaoS^;,  which  in 
Ancient  Greek  do  not  distinguish  the  feminine  from  the  mascu- 
line, assume  m  Romaic  the  i.roper  feminine  termination  ?/»<!»,(.,, 
"^»S^.     This  v  ,s  the  Romaic  termination  for  the  feminine  even 
ot  adjectives  ni  fo;  and  c;  pure.  Thus,  instead  of /x,x/»«;  ,a,x^a,  ^,xf>iv, 
and    c«A«,i;,    ^«x«,«,    <ra>.a,i.,    it    makes  f^,xpoc,  ,ur.f^„  /x,x^i(»), 
and  cra>.„,if,  ^ccXan,,  ^a>.a,i{.)}      I„  comparisons,  Romaic  has 
My^XriTipot  mstead  of  iJ-^Ilm;   xaX^rsfoj  is  more  common  than 
xaX>.;^v ;  and  for  yjip<.,  it  has  ^o'f^^.fi  which  Homer  himself 
uses  in   Ihad  XX.   513.      Romaic  also  frequently  forms  the 
comparative  by  ]>ref5xiiig  ^/.k.  to  the  positive,  and  it  constantly 
uses  the  article  with  the  comparative  instead  of  the  superlative 
resembling  in  both  these  respects  Italian  and  French.  ' 

_    5.  The  proiiouns  .also  aftbct  greater  regularity  in  Romaic  than 
in  Ancient  Greek.     Thus,  instead  of  oiro;,  Jrr,,  r«5ro,  Romaic 

1  As  a  forther  example  of  tl,e  Romaic  predilection  for  resuWity  in  declen- 
sions It  n.aj  be  mentioned  that  those  feminine  nouns  in  .  uhich  in  classic 
Greek  make  the  genitive  in,,-,  preserve  the  vonel  of  the  nominative  through- 
out the  obhque  cases :   thus  Ron.aic  has  i  5.J.,  „-,  5.j„„  „ot  .;,  s,j„.         ^ 


ROMAIC. 


15 


has  roDrof,  ro>7j,  roDro,  and  similarly  in   the  nominative  plural. 
liut  the  m()st  singular  instance  is  in  the  second  personal  pro- 
noun, GiTg,  ffac,  (Tag,  being  the  Romaic  substitutes  for  v/jlsT;,  o/x&ii/, 
i/Mdg'     AVhence  these  forms  <r£/?,  trag?     The  dual  of  (Tu  was  <rew  : 
Homer  (II.  X.  398)  uses  fff/V/vfor  ^a/v;  and  Herodotus  (III.  71) 
e^sag  for  v/Mug.     It  is  therefore  highly  probable  that  ffsTg,  6ag^  and 
^vith  the  digamma  6<png,6(pag,  which  the  ancients  ultimately  used 
for  the  ])lural  of  the  third  personal  pronoun,  are  more  ancient, 
as  they  are  also  more  regular  plurals  of  s-j,  ci,  than  u^g^c,  -jiidg, 
the  very  anomalousness  of  which  betrays  a  later  ori^nn.     The 
genitive  plural  of  all  nouns,  adjectives,  and  pronouns  in  o^  and 
ov,  coincides  in  Eomaic  pronunciation  with  the  accusative  simru- 
Jar,  and  is,  ])robabIy  on  this   account,  much  seldomer  used  than 
the  genitive  singular,  which  coincides  with  no  otlier  case.     In 
accordance  with  this  general  observation,  whereas  Eomaic  has 
yaoi;,  Guxi  fjr  the  genitives  singular  of  i/o;,  cxj,  it  has  no  special  form 
for  their  genitives  plural,  and  employs  the  accusative  instead.  In 
like  manner  raxtg  is  used  for  rZiv^  masc.  fem.  and  neuter,  when 
rZiv  represents  the  pronoun  of  the  third  person.    Thus,  ourhcnuhy 
your  hands,  their  hands,  would  be  expressed  in  Eomaic,  rd  xkid 
flag,  rd  yjfid  <raj,  rd  yjf^id  rovg, 

G.  Indeclinability,   the   natural  result   and  ultimate  term  of 
diminishing  and  confounding  grammatical  inflections,  has  been 
actually  reached  by  Eomaic  in  some  instances.    Ancient  Greek 
had  the  indeclinable  dma,  for  which  Eomaic  uses  rdds^  prefixino- 
the  article  as  the  ancients  prefixed  it  to  dsha.     But,  besides  this 
Eomaic  has  xa^s—every ;    y^dri — some;  and  otoD,  or  croD—who 
which,  that,  all  indeclinable.      Although  this  relative  otoZ  is  dis- 
tinguished by  its  accentuation  from  the  adverb  otou — where,  yet 
it  is  probably  derived  from  this  latter,  just  as  the  Englisli  rela- 
tive who  is  derived  from  the  German  ?cO— where,  used  still  by  the 
vulgar  in  some  parts  of  Germany  for  the  proper  relative  welcher. 
The  same    fate    has   befallen   the  present  participle,  the   only 
active  participle  ])reserved  in  Eomaic,  all  its  ancient  inflections 
being  re[)resented  by  the  accusative   plural  masculine.^     The 

*  The  reader  will  notice  the  accordance  of  this  fact  with  the  alleged  dis- 
appearance of  all  pcrittosyllabics  from  Romaic,  and  with  the  mode  of  tlieir 
disappearance  as  described  in  p.  10.  The  state  of  the  passive  participles  in 
Romaic  is  another  confirmation.     Although  the  aorist  tense  has  been  pre- 


\ 


IG 


KOMAIC. 


ROMAIC. 


17 


interrogation  W  is  almost  in  tlie  same  state,  for  Romaic  has  W 
w^a  — what  o'clock;  W  yui/a/xa/;— what  women;  and  ri  Mpu^oi 
—what  men,  indifFerently.  But  for  this  an  ancient  precedent  is 
alleged  in  the  rSc  ri  for  ra  r/va  of  Aristo})hanes  {'Etpr.vn.  693). 

7.  With  respect  to  verbs, the  conjugation  in  /x/  has  been  \ost,dsruj 
being  used  for  W^tj/x/,  a^;^w  for  af /V/,  and  so  on  in  other  cases. 
Many  verbs  preserve  tlie  middle  sense,  but  none  the  future  and 
aorists  middle,  the  only  tenses  peculiar  to  that  voice ;  the  entire 
optative  and  infinitive  moods  have  been  lost ;  of  the  imperative 
only  the  second  persons  remain  ;  the  subjunctive  is  frequently 
confounded  with  the  indicative ;  and,  in  the  general  ruin  of  the 
ancient  verb,  the  only  tenses  saved  are  the  present,  imperfect, 
and  aorist,  active  and  passive. 

The  total  loss  of  the  optative  and  infinitive,  and  the  frecjueiit 
use  of  the  indicative  for  the  subjunctive  in  Romaic,  are  perhaps 
partly  owing  to  the  obliteration  of    whatever  difference  once 
existed  between  g/,  >j,  and  a  in  pronunciation.     Whoever  looks 
through  the  paradigm  of  rvrrruj^  remembering  that  s/  of  the  indi- 
cative and  infinitive,  v  of  the  subjunctive,  and  o/  of  the  optative, 
nearly  2000  years  ago,  came  to  be  sounded  alike  by  the  Greeks, 
all  of  them  as  ee  in  see,  and  notices  how  often  the  corresj)onding 
parts  in  these  four  moods  thus  pronounced  sound  alike  to  the 
ear,  the  only  guide  of  an  illiterate  people,  will  give  its  due  weiglit 
to  this  suggestion.     Romaic  contains  many  examples  of  what 
strange   metamorphoses  the   ear  permits  when  uncruided  by  a 
knowledge  of  letters.     Thus,  supposing  v  of  the  article  in    rr,v 
"xhpav  to  belong  to  the  proper  name,  the  people  now  call  "rhpa, 
Nudpa  ;  so  also  they  say  N/xap/a  for  'Ixa^/a,  and  N/o;  for  "log,     Tlie 
same  corruption  appears  in  some  common  nouns,  as  vQj/jlo;  for 
w/^o?,  and  vor/.oKvpig  (a  householder)  for  o/xox:i/p/(o)c:,  examples  which 
recall  Homer's  ^ti^'mo;  for  fidv.aog  (H.  H.  2.)     Proceeding  on  a 
contrary  supposition,   i.e.,  supposing  that  the  initial  N^'of  the 
proper  name  really  belonged  to  the  article  prefixed,  the  peojile 
have  made  'Ag/a,  and  "E'rrayjog  out  of  Nci^o;  and  ^av'^axrog.     A 
similar  illustration  is  afforded  by  the  whole  class  of  Romaic  verbs 

served  in  the  indicative  and  subjunctive  moods,  yet  the  aorist  participle,  as 
perittosyllabic,  has  been  lost ;  whereas,  although  the  perfect  indicative  passive 
has  been  lost,  its  participle,  being  isosyllabic,  remains. 


J 


I 


beginning  with  Ss,  which  is  the  Romaic  equivalent  of  the  initial 
un  in  compound  English  verbs.  Thus  xoXXw,  or  rather  in  Romaic 
xoAi/5,  means  to  glue,  and  hence  exxo?.Xw  came  to  mean  the  con- 
trary, Le.j  to  unglue  ;  but  since,  in  the  aorist— the  narrative  tense, 
and  consequently  the  one  most  used — ixxo/J.o)  became  l^iKoXkrica, 
Romaic,  taking  the  initial  e  for  the  augment,  formed  a  new  pre- 
sent indicative  from  the  aorist,  viz.,  ^iJioXXu)^  or  rather  ^exoXi/&;. 
Thus  also  H^i'jyui-^l  yoke,  and  g^gi-yw—I  unyoke,  etc. 

What  substitutes  Romaic  hasfound  for  the  lost  moodsand  tenses, 
as  also  how  far  its  formation  of  the  tenses  saved  differs  from  the 
ancient  model,  will  be  more  particularly  explained  in  notes  to  the 
Romaic  extracts  subjoined.     Suffice  it  to  say,  in  general,  here, 
that  the  lost  tenses  are  expressed  by  means  of  e;/w,  ^sXw,  and 
«/>«/  (I  am),  used  as  auxiliaries,  and  that  when,  in  the  formation 
of  a  tense  preserved,  Romaic  differs  from  the  ancient  model,  it 
often  does  so  to  avoid  an  irregularity  which  classic  Greek  had 
sanctioned.     Thus,  instead  of  ypd-^ov  in  the  first  aorist  imperative 
active,  Romaic  has  /^a^g ;  and  instead  of  yp^ri  in  the  second  per- 
son singular  of  the  present  indicative  passive,  ypa^picai^  which  is  no 
doubt  the  more  ancient  form.     The  want  of  the  infinitive  is 
supplied  by  ^a  (/Va)  with  the  subjunctive,  and  that  of  the  opta- 
tive in   its  proper  optative  sense,  by  f/^s  i^a,  or  a/^Tors  \a^  also 
with  the  subjunctive.     Wherever  let  occurs  in  the  English  im- 
perative, Romaic  uses  «--,  a  corruption  of  apg,  with  the  subjunc- 
tive.    But  the  most  remarkable  of  all  the  particles,  used  in  the 
formation  of  Romaic  tenses,  is  ^a  or  &i  va^  which,  also  prefixed  to 
the  subjunctive,  expresses  the  future.     In  Chios  at  the  present 
day  ^sXg/  is  vulgarly  pronounced  ^f,  so  that  ^=  va,  or  6a  repre- 
sents &i>^u  iVa,  by  which,  and  a  tense  of  the  subjunctive,  tlie 
ancient  future  had  first  been  resolved.     This  da  with  the  imper- 
fect is  equivalent  to  the  conditional  particle  aV  in  classic  Greek ; 
thus  &a  7^70 — it  would  be. 

The  accidence  of  ancient  Greek  having  been  thus  truncated 
and  broken  up  in  Romaic,  it  necessarily  follows  that  its  syntactical 
arrangements  are  exceedingly  simple.  The  most  singular  peculi- 
arity is  the  use  of  the  genitive  for  the  ancient  dative  after  verbs  of 
declaring,  giving  and  taking  away,  as  /-toD  iJm  instead  of  f^ol  g/Vi. 
The  few  ancient  prepositions  preserved  all  govern  the  accusative ; 
aT6,  5/$,  and  y^s,  which  is  a  truncation  of  /xera,  are  those  most 

R 


18 


ROMAIC. 


frequently  used,  and  correspond  to  the  Frencli  de,  a,  and  avec 
respectively. 

After  all  these  fleductions  the  reader  will  perhaps  be  surprised 
to  find  the  (xreek  type  so  very  recognisable  in  the  following 
Romaic  proverbs,  taken  from  M.  Sophocles'  Chrestomathy, 
p.  15fi. 


ROMAIC. 


19 


fj^oLg,  [Jj6\ov  sTvai  ffrpctZr,. 

2.     KdX'Aiov   sVa;^    (ppovi/xog   sy- 
df>bg  Tapa^  svag  ^on^Xo;  ^piXog, 
3,       *0/      ToWoi    xocpaZox,vpaToi 


1.  Ours  is  a  bonnie  bride, 
only  she  s(piints. 

2.  Better  a  wise  enemy  than 
a  foolish  friend. 

3.  Too  many  captains  founder 
the  ship. 


^  The  present  indicative  of  the  Romaic  substantive  verb  is  formed  as  in 
i^ai  the  margin,  on  the  type  of  KiTuect,  except  in  the  third  person  singular  of 
•Ta-ai  both  numbers.  That  hvat  should  be  both  singular  and  plural  is  no 
uveci  greater  blemish  in  Romaic  than  was  in  ancient  Greek  the  identity  of 
ttfii^a  the  first  person  singular  and  third  person  plural  in  the  imperfect  active 
«i<r^i  of  verbs  in  &,.  This  /;y«<  is  very  like  the  Doric  <w  for  irri  or  the 
hvai  Ionic  «v/,  whicli  stood  for  both  'ivifn  and  ivturi.  In  the  compounds  Utei 
— some,  i.e.^  «»'  ot — there  are  who,  and  iv/ari — sometimes,  i.e.,  i'w  on — there 
are  (times)  when,  f*'  is  used  in  the  simple  substantive  sense,  as  it  also  is  by 
Herodotus  (viii.  55),  where,  speaking  of  the  temple  of  Erechtheus,  he  says, 
iy  ry  Ixu'trt  n  xa.)  SaXdirtra  'in.  In  Romaic  the  last  word  of  this  phrase  would 
be  written  li^a.,.  But  it  was  not  always  so  written  ;  in  Ptochoprodromos  it 
occurs  under  the  forms  i'v/,  i»!,  lyiv,  h  ;  afterwards  it  was  written  i'vai,  and  the 
form  i'vi  is  still  preserved  on  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea,  and  in  some  islands. 
The  only  remnant  of  the  classic  ufx,)  is  in  the  r'n  J,,  by  which  the  military 
guard  in  Greece  addresses  the  passer-by  after  nightfall,  and  to  which  must 
be  answered  xaXoi- 

'  "Eva,-  stands  for  ih,  and  is  probably  more  like  the  primitive  form  of  the 
cardinal  unit  ;  how  else  can  the  oblique  cases  be  accounted  for,  and  the  Latin 
umis  f  It  is  the  Romaic  indefinite  article  ;  and,  as  in  the  Hellenistic  dialect, 
is  often  equivalent  to  the  indefinite  rn.     See  Mat.  viii.  19  :  xix.  16. 

*  The  classical  reader  will  be  shocked  to  find  Tct^k  construed  with  the  nomi- 
native, instead  of  the  accusative,  according  to  classic  usage,  after  comparatives. 
Nevertheless  Aristotle  uses  tx^o,  which  Romaic  could  not  be  expected  to  keep  dis- 
tinct from  -ra^k,  instead  of  ii.    In  his  Treatise  on  Plants,  book  ii.  ch.  2,  towards 

the  end  of  it,  is  the  phrase,  «a»rit;Vi»  *«)  xv^iun^ov  fjju.S'tSrixt  rZ  v"ha.ri  r»  uvect  rroir^iiM 

trx^o  T>)  yri.  This  Ta^e  is  no  doubt  wa^'  0,  to  which  Teto  •,  ri  corresponds  in 
Modern  Greek.  Romaic  has  also  tu^ov^  which  is  perhaps  a  mispronunciation 
of  cra^a,  since  many  say  xdrov  for  xara,,  and  so  on. 

*  ir»/>flt/»  for  Tvlyovsiv,  a  Romaic  contraction  not  more  violent  than  the  ancient 
one  of  uvirxv  into  Jiv  in  the  optative  of  i//t<i,  and  possessing  the  same  recom- 


4.  'O   didZo/.og   'y/dia   dsv^  s^si^ 
xai  Tupi  grrovXis  QrruiXssV 

5,  E/5       xp£/j,aff/Msvo'j^      ffrrirt* 
ffyjivi  iMTi^^  dvoLppyfg, 

G.    " A7.oyov  orrou    ctZ   yoipl^ovvj 
ng  ra  *d6vrta  /xriv  ro  C/.s'cttj;. 

7.  Kdh    Ys-jT'/jg  ("VsjcrTig)   syst 
xcti  rhv  [MuprvpoL  rov. 

8.  "Oto/oj     (offrig)    xarj    [x\    rh 
X^idrh^  (p'jddii  y.cti  ro  xpvov. 

9.  Il/Vav   o-ToD    Sbv    rp'Jjyetg      ri 
0"*  ivvo/d^si  av  xahrai  ; 

10.  "Emg  rpsXhg  priyn,  (pt'mi) 
rriv  Tsrpav  V*'  rb  rrriyddi,  y'  Uarbv 


4.  The   devil  has  no  ffoats, 
yet  he  sold  cheese. 

5.  In  the  house  of  the  hanged 
don't  mention  a  rope. 

G.  Don't  look  at  the  teeth  of 
a  gift  horse. 

7.  Every  liar   has  also   his 
witness. 

8.  AMioever  has  been  burnt 
with  the  hot,  blows  the  cold  too. 

9.  What  need  you  mind,  if  the 
pie  you  don't  eat  should  be  burnt? 

10.  A  fool    throws   a  stone 
into    the    well,     and    a    hun- 


mendation,  that,  namely,  of  diminishing  the  sibilant  sounds,  which  in  Greek, 
as  in  English,  are  rather  abundant.  Romaic  uses  this  termination,  cw,  for 
ft-a-.y  of  the  subjunctive  as  well  as  for  •«^<r/v  of  the  indicative. 

*  ^£v,  not,  is  a  truncation  of  ouh*,  which  even  classic  writers  sometimes 
used  adverbially  instead  of  xar'  Ivlh,  like  the  English  nothing  in  the  phrase 
**  nothing  loath."  In  the  extracts  given  at  pp.  43,  44,  Ivlh  will  be  found  fre- 
quently used  for  ^£v. 

*  f'*;,  for  iv,  occurs  in  the  lower  Alexandrian  Greek.  See  Luke  i.  20  • 
xi.  7.  ' 

3  Romaic  uniformly  neglects  the  reduplication  in  the  perfect  participle  pas- 
sive. • 

*  tf-Wri,  VWTi»(v),  of-rlnnv,  from  the  Latin  hospitium.  Every  one  knows 
that  Latin  words  were  no  strangers  to  the  Alexandrian  dialect :  witness  the 
Kn*fos,xov,rru,V,u,  aov'lci^io,,  tItXo;,  (p^ttyixxtov,  etc.  of  the  Ncw  Testament. 

*  f^vi>,  in  this  and  the  following  proverb,  is  for  ^^,  which  orthography  is 
observed  in  prov.  22.  Contrary  to  the  general  practice  described  in  p.  13, 
Romaic  words  sometime  assume  a  final  v.  Examples  will  be  found  below  in 
the  extract  from  Ptochoprodromos.  Professor  Ross  heard  in  Cyprus  rovrov 
ra  akko,,  instead  of  rouTo  to  cikXo.  See  his  travels  in  the  Greek  Islands,  vol.  iv. 
p.  210. 

"  This  truncation  of  h;  before  the  article  has  given  rise  to  a  whole  class  of 
Romaic  proper  names.  Professor  Ross  (vol.  i.  p.  141  of  his  Travels)  mentions 
a  monastery  in  Seriphos  called  Stee?i  Vreesin,  i.e.,  '2  t«.  b^C^^.,  because  of  a 
neighbouring  fountain;  and  (vol.  ii.  p.  43)  a  plain  in  Amorgos  called  Sto 
Horj/o,  I.e.,  '2  to  \u^d{v\  from  there  having  formerly  been  a  village  upon  it. 
To  this  pronunciation  Constantinople  owes  its  Turkish  name ;  for  the  Turks, 
hearing  V  rn»  ^r«A<v),  i.e.,  as  it  would  sound  to  them,  Steemholee  frequently 
in  the  mouths  of  the  Greeks  with  reference  to  Constantinople,  imagined  that 


a—h 


OlMlM 


20 


ROMAIC. 


Xoutf/). 

11.  " Orrou  dxov;  (^dxcUig)  'rroX- 
Xd  xspdffta,  Cdffru.  ^waoTa^s)  xa/ 
fJjiTtph  xaXdQi, 

12.  Alio  ydhapoi^  \fjjd7^0'^av^  sig 
^iVTiv  dyjjpma, 

13.  Msrpa  diXUj  xai  x6(priy 
(xo'XTs)  fjL/av. 

14.  Qpi-^i  XCxov  rhv  yrn'Mwa^ 
yd  tfs  '^dyri  ro  xaXoxdipi. 


dred   wise  men    don't  take   it 
out. 

11.  Where  you  hear  of  many 
cherries,  cany  there  a  small 
basket. 

12.  Two  donkeys  quarrelled 
in  a  strange  barn. 

13.  Measure  ten,  and  cut 
one. 

14.  Feed  a  wolf  in  winter, 
he  will  eat  you  in  summer. 


to  be  the  name,  and  called  it,  as  they  do  still,  Stamhoul.  In  much  the  same 
way  Bougainville,  having  asked  the  natives  of  Tahiti  the  name  of  their  island, 
and  hearing  them  say,  "  O  Tahiti,"  i.e.,  it  is  Tahiti,  imagined  the  whole  an- 
swer to  be  the  name,  and  called  it  Otaheite. 

^  C<w  is  a  favourite  Romaic  termination  for  verbs:  thus  it  has  raXf  and  aXXoiZ,u 
for  raffffu  and  a.\xd.(r(ru  ;  but  even  the  ancients  had  (r^xZ,u  as  well  as  <r^a.<rffiu. 

2  Aristotle  mentions  a  fish  called  «v«,' ;  and  Athena?us  (book  vii.  p.  316), 
speaking  of  it,  says,  ovaf  a*  xaxiovri  Ttns  yilov.  The  Cretans  now  call  a  fish, 
which  may  have  been  the  same,  yoL^tt.o'oy^xoo(v),  fe.,  ass-fish.  It  is  therefore 
probable  that  yalo;  Avas  an  ancient  vulgar  name  for  ova,-,  and  hence  the  Romaic 

yaoa^oi. 

^  By  borrowing  terminations  from  the  ancient  first  aorist,  Romaic  distin- 
guishes the  first  person  singular  from  the  third  person  plural  of  its  imperfects. 
For  example,  if^aXovav  is  the  third  person  plural  of  the  imperfect  of  ^!EAoy<w, 
f^aXflvar  the  tcusc  being  inflected  as  in  the  margin.  The  Romaic  aorist  is 
ifiixons  inflected  in  the  same  way:  hence  «>«<'«,  in  pro  v.  21,  instead  of 
XfAxXon  tfjutSo-j.  This  mode  of  distinguishing  the  first  person  singular  from 
i^axova^jv  the  third  person  plural  is  mentioned  by  Eustathius,  on  the  autho- 
f^«Xflv£Ts  rity  of  Ileraclides,  as  having  prevailed  in  Cilicia.  At  page  1759 
i/*«Xflvav       of  his  Commentary  on  Homer,  Eustathius  says  :  KaJ  it  'Exx»jw?;«- 

rii  tv  K/Xi»/ix.      .      .      .     a^oJaAXovTif  to  »,  *a<  fAirartSivris  ro  o  fiix^ov  ii;  i^a;^u  eiXlptt 
T^o^Pioovrai,  'iXaSx  kiyovTis  xxt  iifixyx-  xxi  t^Itx  "hi  rovra/y  TXrJvvrixx^  tif  at  Xriyotrx^ 

xiyovenv.    Koracs  asserts  that  vX^x*,  Ipvyxv,  'ixxZavy  iyxxTiXtTxv,  and  the  like, 
occur  in  the  Septuagint. 

*  Mir^x,  as  from  ftsrox^  instead  of  f^iroir^  ;  so  in  prov.  22  Xv'ri<rx,,  as  from 
xvrxof^x,  instead  of  xvTiOf4.x,.  This  is  the  Doric  preference  of  a  so  conspicuous 
in  Romaic.  In  the  island  of  Kalymnos,  a  chapel  of  St  Irene  is  called  '.\y!x 
'ifa'va,  and  ^^f^os  is  pronounced  ^a>o,-.  In  like  manner,  many  Romaic  participles 
are  formed  as  if  from  a  present  in  «^«i ;  thus  i^x'^fiivos  and  lixxfitvos  are  used 
for  io^of^tivof  and  ^ix;of^i*os. 

^  ©e^^«  is  the  aor.  imper.  for  ^^i^^^t,  a  formation  of  which  there  are  ex- 
amples in  Homer,  as  oln  in  Odyss.  xx.  481. 

0/*"i  ^ii/a>  y^nv  xxxuv  UKOf,  oTrt  2i  xai  •rZ»' 


ROMAIC. 


21 


15.  'Orav  XaXouv  (XaXiDff/)  6/ 
xopdxoi  (^xopaxsg),  ^evyovv  rd 
dvjdovia, 

16.  'Ourg  6  (pruyjbg  {'^rctjyog)^ 
OUTS  6  Xoyo;  rov. 

17.  O,  Ti  ilyjt  jj  ypia  (ypdiOL) 
V  t6\i  voZv  Ti^g,  ro  'QXim  *g  rb 
ovsipov  rtjg. 

18.  Offog  iTffatf  rrdvra  (rrdvrri) 
(pdtvo'j  xCCi  xoiMfMUTi  rrapaxdr^f), 

19.  T^  dXoyov  TO  rrXr^yMiMivov^ 
orav  ihfi  rr^v  ff'sXav,  rpBjj,si. 

20.  'O  Xvxog  'g  rriv  dvs/MO^dXr}v 
yaipirai. 

21.  "EiMa&a.  yvi^vhg^  x  hrps- 
rro'Lai  hdufxivog. 

22.  Mr}  Xwruffat  rhv  xxZaXAdpriv 
rrug  [or  I J  xps/Mvrai  rd  'roddpid 
rov. 

23.  Tbv  yupidrriV  rov  eV//xoD<rav,^ 
x'  Ixihog  'OappoZci  rrujg  (^''0  '"O" 
'  ^oQovvrav. 

24.  'OtoD  Tg/j/ag/  xofiifidria  hit- 
pivsrai. 


15.  When  the  crows  caw, 
the  nightingales  flee  away. 

16.  Neither  the  poor  man, 
nor  his  word. 

17.  What  the  old  w^oman  had 
in  her  mind  she  saw  in  her 
dream. 

18.  However  great  you  are, 
ahvays  seem  a  little  less. 

19.  The  galled  horse  trem- 
bles when  he  sees  the  saddle. 

20.  The  wolf  delights  in  the 
storm. 

21.  I  learned  (to  go)  naked, 
and  am  ashamed  (to  go)  dressed. 

22.  Don't  pity  the  horseman 
because  his  feet  hanxr. 

23.  They  honoured  the  pea- 
sant, and  he  thought  they  feared 
him. 

24.  (He)  who  is  hungry 
dreams  of  pieces. 


*  elxoyov,  irrational.  The  horse  is  so  called  as  being  the  noblest  of  the 
domesticated  animals.  In  like  manner,  TtTiivosy  winged,  is  the  Romaic  name 
for  the  cock. 

*  TXttyM/^'ivov,  perf.  part,  pass.,  without  the  reduplication,  from  'rXnyo(v)u,  a 
Romaic  derivative  from  TXnyv. 

'  ir'iXav  from  Latin  sella. 

*  The  Romaic  formation  of  the  imperf.  indie,  of  pure  verbs  is  exhibited  in 

the  two  words  irtjuoda-xv  and  '^xpfavtn. 

**  No  single  word  could  better  illustrate  the  variety  of  grammatical  forms 

in  Romaic  than  this  '<potovvrxv,  since,  according  to  M.  Sophocles'  grammar  (p. 

i^oi—ovvro     64),  it  might  have  been  written  in  five  different  ways,  as  in  the 

— odyrxy   margin.    Without  going  to  Greece  any  one  may  understand  that 

■^loUvTx*  these  various  forms  are  provincialisms;  and  that  M.  Sophocles* 

— tovrav     work  Consequently  appears  to  his  countrymen  exactly  as  would 

—todvTo    to  an  Englishman  a  grammar  exhibiting,  along  with  the  English 

of  the  educated,  a  collection  of  the  dialectical  peculiarities  from  Land's  End 

to  John  o'  Groat's  House.    The  reader  will  observe  that  'ixpfoZtn  and  '^oSouvrmt 

are  unaugmented,  which  is  a  very  frequent  omission  in  Romaic. 


^± 


ROMAIC. 


ROMAIC. 


23 


25-    rioD   -ra;     xax?^  f^^yj^  \    \ 

26.  Tlojg  rrav  [i'xoiyouv),  xo^axa, 
ra  rraihid  6o\j\  "Offov  cav,  rodov 
fincvpi^ouv. 

27.  ^rah/St  (rTraiii)  6   /SaTrTj;, 
xa/  dspvov)/    rbv  fMaynpav, 

2^.  "Erriaffi  to  -/iXt  u-rb  riiv 
oupdv. 

29.  0£>.S'  va^  'ZydXp{MdXr;)  rh 
*(pihi  d'xh  Tr,v  rp-j-rray  [ms  roZ  rpO.ou 
TO  yjpi. 


25.  Where  are  you  going, 
bad  luck  ?  To  the  house  of 
the  genius. 

26.  How  are  your  children 
getting  on,  crow  ?  As  they  get 
on,  thev  £jet  blacker. 

27.  The  tailor  is  at  fault, 
and  they  beat  the  cook. 

2S.  He  caught  the  eel  by 
the  tail. 

29.  He  wishes  to  draw  the 
serpent  out  of  its  liole  with  the 
fool's  hand. 


Besides  current  proverbs  like  the  above,  the  Klephtic  and  popu- 
lar songs,  where  the  want  of  learning  in  the  authors  ensures  the 
reader  against  pedantry,  may  also  be  depended  on  as  faithfully 
representing  the  spoken  dialects.  But  the  long  barbarous  poems, 
which  form  the  rest  of  Romaic  literature,  having  been  written 
by  men  of  some  education,  are  all,  more  or  less,  in  the  macaronic 
style,  and  their  evidence,  therefore,  cannot  be  implicitly  received. 
In  the  prolegomena  to  vol.  ii.  of  his"Araxra,  Koraes  gives  a  list 
of  such  poems,  beginning  with  those  of  Ptochoprodromos  (a.d. 
1150),  from  which,  as  being  the  earliest,  an  extract  is  subjoined. 


*  i-rayus^  ^uyuf,  Tan;,  -ra;.  Sucli  transformations  are  met  with  in  all  popu- 
lar dialects.  Grammarians  tell  us  that  the  Tarentines  omitted  y  in  the  pro- 
nunciation of  eXiV^,  as  do  the  inhabitants  of  Rhodes  and  the  neighbouring 
islands  to  this  day. 

'  ytp'^evv  for  Vffovfftv.  The  ^Eolic  termination  ^^u  is  a  favourite  one  in  Uo- 
miic :  thus,  instead  of  '^ioM  and  (ttiiow,  it  has  piovM  and  a-Tiovuf. 

^  Here  v«  with  the  subjunctive  represents  the  lost  infinitive.  (Economos, 
in  his  work  on  the  pronunciation  of  Greek,  states  that  the  infinitive  is  still 
preserved  in  Cyprus,  and  on  the  shores  of  the  Hlack  Sea ;  and  he  instances 
<r^iv  Soilai,  T^tv  ^loylffui,  as  examplcs.  This,  however,  may  be  a  mere  variety 
in  the  pronunciation  of  the  subjunctives  ^^iv  *^s|»j,  toU  x"*''?-  At  all  events, 
granting  that,  in  Cyprus  and  on  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea,  the  infinitive 
siu-vives  in  certain  phrases  (as  in  these  same  parts  the  ancient  ending  of  the 
present  indie,  act.  awa-i(v)  has  been  preserved,  and  even  the  Doric  i'f*if  for 
iffitv),  it  is  most  certainly  obsolete  in  the  Romaic  dialects  generally;  nor 
have  they  any  greater  blemish  than  the  constant  recurrence  of  »«,  which  their 
mode  of  supplying  the  want  of  the  infinitive  necessitates. 


^ 


A  few  words  regarding  the  author  are  premised  to  render  his 
verses  more  intel liable,  and  less  uninterestincr. 

His  personal  history  is  an  exemplification  of  prov.  25  in  the 
above  collection ;  for  he  was  a  monkish  rroXursy^vkrig,  who  wrote 
on  grammar,  history,  philosophy,  astronomy,  and  theology,  and 
that,  too,  in  tolerable  Byzantine  Greek,  yet  so  poor  that  he  found 
occasion  to  indite  two  farcical  Romaic  poems,  one  on  his  poverty, 
or,  as  he  more  feelingly  calls  it,  his  hunger,  and  another  on  his  hard 
treatment  in  the  monastery.  In  the  first,  he  describes  not  only 
his  hunger,  but  the  expedients  to  which  it  drove  him,  and  the 
regrets  it  suggested  that  he  had  not  been  bred  a  baker,  a  shoe- 
maker, a  street-crier,  or,  indeed,  anything  rather  than  a  scholar ; 
and  in  the  second,  he  describes  not  only  his  own  hard  treatment 
in  the  monastery,  but  also  the  luxury  of  his  superiors,  displaying 
an  acquaintance  with  cookery-book  nomenclature,  which  an  ac- 
complished gourmet  might  be  proud  of,  and  which  tempts  us  to 
suspect  that  he  was  not  himself  a  man  to  rest  contented  like  a 
good  Christian,  with  the  simplest  food  and  raiment.  Both  these 
complaints  are  addressed  to  the  3d  Comnenus,  and  the  following 
couplet  in  honour  of  that  emperor  will  show  that,  with  all  his 
school  and  kitchen  learniiig,  the  poor  Forerunner  did  not  rise 
above  his  age,  in  respect  of  mental  culture  and  taste. 

'O'jTu;  T'jyyJiMiig  Ma!/oi/;^X  (^ilg  smystog  re 
E/j,,u,avojr,Xy   HaiJ.Za6i\iZ  rrapd  Gapdvra  rrBvrs, 

"  Thus,  Manuel,  you  chance  to  be  a  god  on  eartli, 
-fc'?/?manuel,  king  of  kings,  excepting  forty-five." 

Gapdvra  rrevre  is  also  the  present  pronunciation  of  ncGapdxovra 
'TsvTs.  This  number  being  written  /xs  in  Greek,  and  these  letters 
inverted  and  prefixed  to  :M(i'.c-jr,X  making  'E/x/xavou?5A,  the  wretched 
and  irreverent  enigma  is  explained. 

The  following  extract  is  from  the  poem  on  his  hunger,  and 
describes  a  practical  joke.  It  would  appear  that  the  family  of 
Ptochoprodromos  were  as  much  disappointed  as  himself  at  the 
unproductiveness  of  his  learning  ;  and  at  length,  their  disappoint- 
ment having  passed  into  indignation,  one  day  on  taking  his  usual 
place  at  table,  the  following  scene  occurred  as  if  by  concert  anion  n- 
the  others ;  — 


24 


ROMAIC. 

'ExsTvoi    d'  i^irrrihricav,  Xeyovrsg  ofiu^ uivojg' 
Madh  xai  toD  dpya^id^scs  ;    rddo  dsv  syng  rorrov 
Uarrag,  ypafx/xanxbg  ihai'  rps^i  rbv  kaurov  tfou' 
Mj^v  OJt?;?,  to  drrdxiv  fiag,  dsv  U6ai  ffit  did  roDro* 
""Av  6s  miv^g,  dyopaa,  ypa/M/MaTixs,  xai  (pdys, 
Tourctjv  ds  'rphg  fis,  Catf/XsD,  drrdvrojv  Xgyo/xsi/wv, 
'Oxdri  rrujg  syherov  xrxjrtog  hg  rh  xardjyiv^ 
Kai  'xdvTig  iavxu)d7}Gav,  s^vyov  rrapa\jrixa, 
*EX'r/'^o)>Tsg  or/  yoLkd  rh  (frr/riv  vd  roug  cv/J^j, 

UoXXd  ydp  riro  -TaXa/ov,  rravu  ff-ffadpu/Msvov. 

Eyd)  5'  cog  svpov  x.iifiivov  rh  cvfirrXivpov  drtdxiv^ 
*Hp^d/zriv  6-jXAoyi^iGdai,  xai  \ig  rov  \/o\Jv  /xou  Xsyw* 
'Oux  g//x'  syuj  rov  g'Xgyar  'Oi»  5/aC^  ug  Kdp-jyyd  aov  ; 
'AXX'  'idi  rrjv  dffvyxpiroit  $sou  (piXavOpc^Tlav, 
Ucug  vrrsp  Xoyov  s<psps  r'  drrdxiv  hg  i/j^hav. 
Tavra.  ds  Xsyuv,  QaGiAiv,  rr,v  iLayaipav  xparriCag^ 
'ilp^dfiTiv  s/jLTouxovsffdai,  iJ^iyjig  iig  xopov  rX&ov, 


10 


15 


Ver.  2.  Ma^ov  .  .  .  apyaSixltfi ;  Koraes,  from  whose  "Aruxrxj  vol.  i.  p.  10, 
the  text  is  copied,  can  make  nothing  of  this  phrase.  A  meaning  has  been 
supposed  to  it  in  the  translation,  rdh,  perhaps  the  Doric  rah,  e  beino-  often 
substituted  for  s :  thus,  «?«  is  pronounced  e'ia,  and  Kx^P^ii  ox^pos. 

Ver.  3.  UeiTai  means  a  priest,  but  udTas  the  pope.  Wv  iccvro*  <rev  is  Ro- 
maic for  o-EawTov.  All  the  reciprocal  pronouns  are  so  formed  ;  that  is  to  say, 
the  genitives  of  the  personal  pronouns  (the  article  being  used  enclitically  for 
the  pronoun  of  the  third  person)  are  appended  to  a  masculine  singular  case 
of  tauTow,  with  the  article  prefixed. 

Ver.  4.  «cra*<a)v,  of  unknown  derivation,  corresponds  with  the  ancient  ^itt. 
tin,  equivalent  to  u(r»i  in  the  previous  line. 

Ver.  7.  'OKdn  or  kcIt,,  i.e.  k£,  rl.  Romaic  has  a  number  of  such  compounds, 
as  xacraw,  somewhere  ;  xaTotos,  some,  in  reference  to  number  ;  KifjuToaoi,  some, 
in  reference  to  quantity.  To  all  these  Ptochoprodromos  prefixes  «',  which 
Koraes  considers  to  be  ^,-,  in  the  sense  it  bears  in  the  Ancient  Greek  phrase, 
^nii  i>i  Tp,ccKi(r,ct,.  Apollonius  of  Tyre  uses  h'^  »«  for  hie  »«,  and  the  author  of 
the  poem  entitled  History  of  Alexander  the  Great ^  us  ytk  yd  for  the  same,  a 
comparison  giving  some  probability  to  Koraes*  supposition.  See  vol.  i.  of 
•Araxra,  p.  167.  iymroy  and  i^utvav,  in  line  15,  are  examples  of  the  assumed 
final  V,  according  to  what  is  stated  in  note  (5),  p.  19. 

Ver.  11.  f^^TXtupoy  means,  together  with  the  adjoining  sides  or  ribs. 

Ver.  13.  T«y  used  for  the  relative,  as  is  t^jv  in  the  quotation  from  Homer, 
p.  7,  and  t^  in  that  from  Herodotus,  in  note  (1),  p.  18.  The  article  is  con- 
stantly so  used  in  'Ep^riKp^rei  [o  ^uxa/oi),  that  famous  Romaic  poem,  which 
some  have  called  I'he  People's  Homer, 


Kr*.' 


ROMAIC. 

Msra  hi  raura,   QaffiXsv^  xdrca  xdydj  xarrj/Jov^ 
Tuya  yvpe-juv  ffvv  dvroTg  rrohv  6  xr-jTog  T/X^iv, 
llporspov  TO  xarovbtv  /j^ag  OTrjffag  e/g  ro  rpa'Ti^tv^ 
Aid  vd  'rrowv  on  srroixiv  7)  xdra  ttjV  ^>j/x/av. 
'  ATavTsg  dh  [j^ird  iiixph  rri  xsXrj  GuvOJovrsg^ 
Kai  rh  xccrovdiv  dvudsv  ihovrfg  rrjg  rpa^rlTrig^ 
' Eppi-^^/ay  yJOoug  x.ar"  durou,  Xiyovreg'  <l?o\vjQr,rCf), 
"On  e(payiv  rh  dauiMuorhv  dxpocracrov  dTrdxiv, 


25 


20 


25 


The  followiiicr  doggrel  lines,  being  an  almost  verbatim  tran- 
slation, will  assist  the  curious  reader  in  interpreting  the  above  : 

But,  jumping  up,  they  said  with  one  accord  : 

Why  don't  you  work  ?     Here  is  no  place  for  3'ou  ; 

Now  you  are  priest  and  scholar,  feed  yourself. 

Nor  look  at  our  rump-piece  ;  it's  not  for  you  : 

But  if  you're  hungry,  scholar,  buy  and  eat.  5 

Whilst  all  these  things  were  said  to  me,  O  king. 

Some  noise  in  the  groundfloor  was  made  below. 

And  all  rose  up  to  flee  away  in  haste, 

From  suflTocation,  if  the  house  should  fiill  ; 

For  it  was  very  old  and  rickety.  jo 

When  thus  I  found  the  rump-piece  lying  rich. 

To  think  I  began,  and  said  in  my  mind  : 

'Twas  I  they  told— your  throat  it  shan't  go  down ; 

But  see  the  incomparable  love  of  God, 

Bringing  the  rump-piece  wondrously  to  me!  15 

This  said,  O  king,  1  caught  hold  of  a  knife. 

Began  to  devour,  and  filled  mvself. 

After  this,  O  king,  I  too  went  below. 

Mayhap  seeking  with  them  whence  came  the  noise ; 

Ver.  17.  ifATevKOH(rfiec,  from  (Italian)  imboccare, 

Ver.  19.  yvptvuv,  K*!-ruv,  from  yvpos,  a  circle,  because  he  who  searches  in  a 
place,  goes  round  and  round  in  it. 

Ver.  20.  xecToCXoJy^  a  diminutive  from  the  low  Latin,  catus ;  >cdr»  in  the 
next  line  is  another  form  of  the  same. 

Ver.  21.  Vva  being  lost  to  Romaic,  vd  strengthened  by  ^d  supplies  its  place, 
just  as  in  Ancient  Greek,  hor,,  i.e ,  en  strengthened  by  lid,  was  used  for  en, 
because,  to  distinguish  it  from  on,  that,     -^iuv  is  for  'itTuxny,  and  i^nKiv  for 

i-roivtvtv. 

Ver.  22.  «tXj,,  from  the  Latin,  cella. 

Ver.  25.  ixp'oTeiirrev.  *ct(rro;  aucicutly  meant  sprinkled  in  general,  but  is 
now  applied  only  to  flesh  and  fish,  in  the  sense  of  sprinkled  with  salt. 


2G 


KOMAIC. 

But  first  I  set  at  the  table  our  cat, 
That  they  might  ascribe  the  damage  to  it. 
Soon  all  in  the  pantry  gathered  again. 
And,  seeing  the  cat  high  on  the  table, 
Threw  stones  at  it,  saying :  Let  it  be  killed, 
Since  it  ate  our  wondrous  povvder'd  rump-piece. 


20 


25 


The  above  is  probably  a  fair  specimen  of  the  inediseval  scholar's 
off-hand  Greek.  In  several  particulars  it  is  distinguished  from 
the  then  vulgar  dialect.  The  reader  is  not  to  suppose,  for  ex- 
ample, because  the  negative  ov  is  constantly  used  in  the  above 
extract,  that  6sv  was  unknown  in  the  time  of  Ptochoprodromos ; 
for  it  occurs  elsewhere  in  his  poems,  as  do  all  the  more  common 
peculiarities  of  Modern  Romaic.  Sometimes,  indeed,  he  bar. 
barises  beyond  Modem  Romaic,  construing,  e.g.,  sx  and  cCv  with 
the  accusative,  whereas  Romaic  now  dispenses  with  them  alto- 
getlier. 

In  the  above  and  in  all  criticisms  of  Romaic,  it  is  compared 
witli  classic  Greek ;  but  it  is  now  time  to  observe  that  this  is 
unfairly  comparing  the  worst  Greek  of  to-day  with  the  best  of 
antiquity.  Having  inherited  only  classic  works  from  the  ancient 
Greeks,  we  are  a])t  to  take  for  granted  that  all  antiquity  was 
classical,  and  to  doubt  the  existence  among  the  ancients  of  a 
vulgar  dialect  considerably  different  from  those  polished  ones  that 
have  come  down  to  ns.  Hence  Romaic  is  generally  considered 
to  be  a  corruption  of  the  Alexandrian  Attic,  whereas  its  prevail- 
ing type  is  not  Attic  but  Aeolo-Doric ;  besides,  vulgar  dialects 
are  not  wont  to  derive  from  any  polished  language,  but  from 
one  another.  How  absurd  would  it  be  to  represent  the  present 
Yorkshire  as  a  corruption  of  Addison's  English  !  The  York- 
shire and  other  dialects  existed  before  classic  English,  which  is 
an  improvement  upon  them,  not  they  a  corruption  of  it.  In 
like  manner,  although  Romaic  did  not  precede  classic  Greek, 
some  popular  dialects  must  have  both  preceded  and  accompanied 
the  classical  ones,  and  Romaic,  so  flir  as  it  inherits  from  antiquity 
at  all,  inherits  not  from  the  polished  dialects  which  we  know, 
but  from  these  popular  ones  which  we  don't  know.  As  a  more 
detailed  investigation  of  this  point  will  throw  some  light  on  the 
history  of  Romaic,  the  following  observations  are  offered  :— 

E^en  although  Homer  had  not  said  of  Cretan  Greek,  «>.>.>; 


KOMAIC. 


27 


I 


o  aX/.wk  y},uiG6a  iMi[j.r/[Miyr,y  it  might  be  safely  asserted  that,  before 
any  Greek  dialect  whatever  was  cultivated,  there  prevailed  an 
innnense  variety  in  the  spoken  language.  It  is  so  in  eveiy  case 
where  the  facts  can  be  examined,  and  that  it  was  peculiarly  so 
among  the  Greeks  may  be  concluded  from  their  dispersion  over 
countries  unfavourable  ph}'sically  to  intercommunication,  and 
politically  disconnected.  Besides,  had  there  not  been  an  im- 
mense spoken  variety,  there  would  not  have  been  materials  for 
four  written  dialects. 

Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  the  original  variety  ceased,  or 
was  even  materially  diminished  by  the  fusion  of  provincialisms 
into  these  written  dialects.  For  what,  in  fact,  does  this  process 
amount  to  ?  Nothintx  less  than  the  formation  out  of  an  immense 
spoken  variety  of  a  new  and  more  perfect  one,  intelligible  indeed, 
on  the  whole,  to  the  masses,  but  not  used  by  them,  and  sup«- 
planting  the  ancient  ruder  forms  of  speech  only  in  the  case  of 
those  actually  engaged  in  its  cultivation,  or  immediately  under 
their  influence.  Such  are  the  facts  in  regard  to  every  living 
European  language;  and  if  in  Italy,  France,  Germany,  and 
Great  Britain,  the  original  variety  in  the  spoken  language  has 
withstood  the  influence,  for  centuries  exerted,  of  the  press,  the 
church,  and  the  school,  much  more  must  the  original  variety  in 
the  spoken  language  of  the  Greeks  have  survived  the  formation 
of  the  polished  dialects,  since  no  conforming  influenc.'e  equal  to 
those  of  modern  times  tlien  existed. 

To  suppose  a  variety  in  the  spoken  Greek  within  even  the  small 
territory  of  Attica,  notwithstanding  the  active  })articipation  of 
the  citizens  in  public  life,  is  only  according  to  all  analogy ;  and 
in  particular,  since  the  majority  of  tlie  inhabitants  were  slaves 
in  daily  intercourse  with  the  citizens,  there  could  not  but  exist 
a  vulgar  dialect,  in  which  bad  grannnar  combined  with  apocope, 
syncope,  and  other  popular  brigands,  to  murder  the  language  of 
Demosthenes.  Xeno])hon  must  have  intended  some  base  patois, 
not  certainly  his  own  style,  when  he  wrote  (Athen.  polit.  ch.  2, 
§  8),  "Ka/  01  (Miv  ^EXXnvsg  (i,e.,  the  other  Greeks),  /^/a  fjuaXKo)^  xal 

(poi\ir^  xai  diairr,  xai  GyjifLari  y^f^Mvrai,  *  A{)r,mioi  ds  xs'Apa/Msvrj  s^  arrdvrCAJv 
rujv  'EX/.pjvwj/  xai  Zaf^Zdfuv.  Because  the  people  understood  the 
orations  of  Demosthenes,  it  is  often  concluded  that  they  con- 
versed in  a  style  not  much  inferior  to  that  in  which  he  harangued. 


28 


ROMAIC. 


ROMAIC. 


29 


But  any  one  may  know  from  the  example  of  Scotland  what  an 
immense  difference  may  exist  between   the  language  which  the 
people  can  understand,  and  the  language  which  the  people  can 
speak,  and  whoever  has  studied  a  foreign  language  in  the  country 
where  it  is  spoken  must   remember   that,  although    in  a  few 
months  he  was  able  to  understand  all  he  heard,  he  could  yet  by 
no  means  speak  like  a  native.     If  British  scholars  come  to  under- 
stand written  Greek  by  dint  of  study,  though  they  can't  speak 
it,  why  should  not  the  illiterate  Athenians  have  understood  the 
Greek  of  Demosthenes,  by  hearing  it  from  their  youth  up  in  the 
mouths  of  their  betters,  even  although  their  own  proper  dialect 
had  been  as  bad  as  Romaic  ?     Indeed,  if  the  language  which 
Aristo|)lianes  makes  the  Athenian  policemen  speak  in  the  Thes- 
mophoriazusa}  be  accepted   as  a  specimen   of  the  then  vulgar 
dialect,    it   already   possessed    several    main    characteristics  of 
Romaic.      These    ancient    Romaicisms   consist   chiefly   in    the 
omission  of  the  final  v,  as  (line  1187),  xa/.i  for  ^aUv^  and  in 
the  corruption  of  the  termination  lov  into  /,  as  (line  1210)  yptj-hi 
for  ypaibiov. 

The  history  of  the  Greek  dialects  affords  a  striking  example 
how  inefficient  is  the  cultivated  language  of  a  people  to  absorb 
popular  varieties.  Whilst  Attic  was  in  its  glory,  and  even  lon^r 
after  it  had  acquired,  at  some  expense  of  its  original  purity  and 
grace,  a  Panhellenic  ascendancy  in  respect  of  literature,  the 
other  dialects,  cultivated  only  by  amateurs,  were  still  spoken 
where  they  had  formerly  prevailed.  Strabo,  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  Christian  era,  thus  writes  (book  viii.,  ch.  1,  2d  par.) 

of  the   PeloponnesianS  : "  o-xeSov    8'    en   kgI   piu,    Kara  TrdXfty,    &\\oi 

aXX(os  diaXeyovTai'  doKSvai  Sc  dcopiCfiv  cmaPTfs  dia  rrjv  (Tv^i^haav  (niKpuTdav'* 

(of  the  Dorians,  that  is  to  say).  Two  centuries  later,  Tatian, 
the  Platonist  apologist  of  the  Christians,  could  thus  address  the 

Greeks  (p.  IGl)  :— "  Nvv  Si  fiovois  v^iXv  dno^t^rjKf  firj^e  cV  rms  6fxi\lais 
6txo^<oP€'ip.  Acopte'o),/  fxh  yhp  cJv^'  ^  avr^  X^'f  *f  roU  diro  r^s  'Arrt^f .  'AioXus 
T€  ovx    ofiuioos  Tois  "ico  (Ti  (pOeyyovTai.** 

Romaic  is  itself  a  living  evidence  how  popular  dialects  persist; 
for,  as  has  been  said,  its  type  is  Aeolo-Doric  rather  than  Attic ; 
and,  though  it  would  seem  pedantic  to  call  Romaic  Aeolo-Doric,' 
as  Christopoulos  has  done  in  the  title-page  of  his  grammar,  it  is 
certainly  a  more  appropriate  name.   AMiy  the  Aeolo-Doric  element 


'  T 


should  have  prevailed  allalong  inRomaic,  will  appearto  anyone  who 
considers  the  geographical  chart  of  the  ancient  dialects,  sketched 
by  Strabo  in  the  paragraph  from  which  an  extract  is  made  in  the 
preceding  page.  Attica  was  the  proper  seat  of  the  Attic,  and  the 
Ionic  prevailed  only  in  the  commercial  towns  of  Asia  Minor,  whilst 
everywhere  else  the  language  of  the  people  was  Aeolic  or  Doric. 
The  history  of  all  revohitions  in  language  attests  the  immense 
power  of  resistance  which  dialects,  however  rude,  derive  from 
numerical  and  geographical  preponderance ;  and  it  would  appear 
that,  whilst  the  highly  polished  Attic  was  perpetuated  in  the 
Alexandrian  and  Byzantine  Greek  of  learned  compositions,  tlie 
ruder  Aeolic  and  Doric  continued  to  prevail  in  the  spoken  lan- 
guage of  the  Greek  race.' 

The  fact  is,  that  vulgar  dialects  are  far  more  durable  than  cul- 
tivated ones.  Cultivation  aims  at  improvement,  and  improve- 
ment implies  change ;  in  other  words,  cultivated  languages  are 
in  a  state  of  active  metamorphosis.  Demosthenes  had  to  explain 
the  antiquated  phrases  of  Draco  and  Solon  ;  and  the  model  dia- 


1  After  this  paragraph  was  written,  George  Finlay,  Esq.,  historian  of  the 
Byzantine  empire,  whose  assistance  in  these  researches,  by  placing  his  splendid 
library  at  my  disposal,  during  my  stay  in  Athens,  I  would  here  gratefully  acknow- 
ledge, procured  me  a  reading  of  Professor  Ross'  travels  among  the  Greek  islands. 
The  preceding  pages  have  been  enriched  with  various  examples  taken  from  this 
work ;  and  I  subjoin  the  translation  of  a  passage,  from  the  original  German, 
which  will  add  the  weight  of  Professor  Ross'  authority  to  the  views  enunciated 
in  the  text  regarding  the  spoken  Greek  of  the  ancients  :— "  The  Attic  dialect 
was  not,  as,  with  Buttmann  andlSIatthias  in  our  hands,  we  often  suppose,  the 
prevailing,  much  less  the  sole  methodised  vernacular  of  the  Ancient  Greeks. 

It  was  only  the  refined  language  of  intercourse  and  composition 

among  the  cultivated  classes  in  Athens,  and  was  really  possessed  by  only  a 
few  thousands.  Before  the  gates  of  Athens,  at  Megara,  Thebes,  Tanagra,  in 
all  the  rest  of  Greece,  very  different  dialects  prevailed  ;  and  though  literary 
men  in  other  districts  afterwards  endeavoured  to  conform  their  style  to  the 
Attic  model,  they  never  attained  its  purity.  In  other  words,  all  Greece,  from 
Sicily  to  Asia  Minor,  and  from  Macedonia  to  Crete,  was  essentially  Aeolic, 
and  spoke  this  dialect,  of  which  Doric  was  but  a  modification.  The  Ionic 
race,  compared  with  the  Aeolic  and  Doric,  had  a  limited  extension ;  and  in 
fact  the  language  of  Attica,  which  our  grammars  adopt  as  the  rule,  was, 
at  the  time  of  the  Peloponnesian  war,  but  a  petty  exception  to  the  rule. 
What  right  have  we  to  require  that  it  should  be  otherwise  now?"— Vol.  iii. 
p.  158. 


30 


liOMAlC. 


ROMAIC. 


r>i 


lect  is  declared  by  critics  to  change  perceptibly  tlirougli  Tlmry- 
dides,  Aristophanes,  Sophocles,  Plato,  Xenoplion,  and  Demos- 
thenes, till  at  length  Menander  appears  introducing  words  tliat 
are  preserved  in  the  present  Romaic,  as  yupog  for  xUXo;,  and 
jubeyinravi;,  grandees.  To  this  fact  we  owe  the  earliest  Greek  lexi- 
cons, which  were  glossaries  to  particular  works,  as  Homer,  Hip- 
pocrates, and  Plato,  compiled  in  the  first  century,  because  the 
then  language,  even  of  the  learned,  no  longer  sufficed  for  the  in- 
terpretation of  the  more  ancient  authors.  Vulgar  dialects,  on  the 
other  hand,  yield  very  slowly  to  peaceful  influences,  and  are 
greatly  changed  oidy  by  the  migration  and  mixture  of  races,  con- 
sequent on  war.  Travellers  represent  the  common  people  in  the 
United  States  as  speaking  in  general  good  English,  free  from 
dialectical  peculiarities;  and  many  Americans  attribute  this  re- 
sult to  their  popular  schools.  But  the  peculiarly  favourable  cir- 
cumstances, arising  from  the  mixture  of  races,  in  which  these 
schools  have  operated,  must  not  be  overlooked.  Where  provin- 
cial dialects  meet,  they  neutralise  each  other  in  the  daily  inter- 
course even  of  the  working  classes,  and  the  language  of  the 
school  supplants  them  all  at  length  ;  but  where  one  uniform 
dialect  prevails  among  the  people,  it  defies  the  schoolmaster.  If 
there  be  anywhere  in  America  an  isolated  settlement  of  Scottish 
peasants,  no  matter  liow  pure  the  English  of  the  schoolmaster  may 
have  uniformly  been,  their  descendants  will  be  found  speaking  the 
dialect  of  their  fathers :  and  from  the  degree  to  which  the  shep- 
herds of  Laconia  doricise  still,  it  may  be  inferred  that,  but  for 
the  migration  and  mixture  of  races  involved  in  Koman,  Sclavo- 
nian,  Saracen,  Prankish,  and  Turkish  conquests,  the  vulgar  form 
of  ancient  Doric  would  have  survived,  with  little  change,  until 
now.  To  this  series  of  social  catastrophes  must  be  attributed 
both  the  internal  dissolution  of  Ancient  Greek,  and  its  admixture 
with  foreign  elements,  as  exhibited  in  Romaic. 

It  cannot  have  escaped  the  reader's  notice  that  almost  all  the 
illustrations  of  Romaic  adduced  in  the  preceding  pages  from 
Ancient  Greek,  have  been  found  in  Homer,  Aristophanes,  the 
Aeolic  and  Doric  dialects,  and  the  Gospels.  These  writings, 
how  different  soever  in  other  respects,  have  one  feature  in  com- 
mon, namely,  their  popular  character  ;  for  the  poems  of  Homer, 
from  the  simplicity  of  their  style,  and  the  grammatical  irregulari- 


I 


ties  they  contain,  were  evidently  written  in  an  age  when  the 
distinction  between  vulgar  and  polished  Greek  was  not  so  decided 
as  it  afterwards  became.  Aristophanes,  like  all  writers  of  comedy, 
admitted  colloquial  and  popular  expressions  ;  the  comparatively 
rough  Aeolic  and  Doric  dialects  were  in  the  mouths  of  peasants  and 
shepherds ;  and  the  Gospels  w^ere  penned  by  men  of  the  people  for 
the  people.  Romaic,  then,  as  inheriting  from  the  vulgar  dialects 
of  all  preceding  ages,  finds  naturally  enough  the  few  illustrations, 
which  anti(juity  affords  of  its  peculiarities,  in  those  wTitings  where 
j)opular  modes  of  speech  might  be  expected  ;  and  if  such  writings 
had  been  still  more  popular  in  their  character,  and  more  of  them 
had  come  down  to  us,  the  ancient  illustrations  of  Romaic  would 
have  been  multiplied  in  proportion.  Let  one  example  suffice. 
In  Romaic,  f^dxpog  is  used  for  /x/jxr;?,  as  in  line  6142  of  Erotocritos 
(o  rra/.ato;)  where  the  lover,  descanting  on  his  happiness  in  having 
been  allowed  at  length  to  press  the  princess  Aretusa's  hand  in 
his,  calls  this  favour  : 

This  word,  however,  was  not  in  any  classical  lexicon  till 
Koraes  noticed  it,  about  fifty  years  ago,  once  more  in  Aris- 
tophanes (opy.  1131)  *a  UoGiidov  rd'j  /May.pov;]  Schneider  and 
Reimer  forthwith  admitted  it  to  lexicographic  honours,  and 
it  is  now  universally  acknowledged.  The  reflection  is  obvious, 
that,  had  this  single  authority  not  survived,  /xax^oj  for  /x^xo; 
would  have  been  set  down  as  a  Romaic  barbarism.  Who  knows, 
then,  how  many  other  words,  and  what  else  in  Romaic  besides 
words  would  receive  illustration  from  antiquity,  if  w^e  had  the 
then  vulgar  Greek  in  its  entirety  before  us? 

The  boldest  statement  in  this  direction  which  I  have  met  with 
is  in  Professor  Ilgen's  Prolegomena  (p.  34)  to  the  Homeric 
Hymns,  where,  with  reference  to  a  translation  into  barbarous 
Greek  of  the  Barpa^o/xvo/May^ia,  he  remarks  :  "  Valde  errant  si 
crediderint  heri  modo  aut  nudius  tertius  tantas  in  eam  {i.e.  into 
Greek)  illatas  esse  mutationes  :  ego  contendere  ausim,  jam 
Demosthenis  aetate  inter  rusticos  eas  in  usu  fuisse.  Quid  ?  quod 
veri  simillimum  est,  Homeri  aetate  non  aliam  vulgi  in  ore  esse 
auditam.     Unde  enim  illud  ^oj  pro  5w/xa.  xpT,  pro  xpi/^vov^  aXipi 

pro  aX^/ra,  Tp6<pi  pro  rpo^i/j^ovy  Kuprj    pro  xdprjvov,  pa  pro  pddiov   .  .  . 


*-r- 


\ 


32 


ROMAIC. 


?>^  pro  rjXog,  'Trav  pro  rravsai  ?  Nonne  ex  vulgi  sermone  ?"  ^ 
Few  will  withhold  their  assent  from  the  affirmative  implied  in 
the  learned  professor's  concluding  interrogation  ;  but  just  as  few 
would  adopt  without  qualification  any  statement  tending  to  iden- 
tify the  Komaic  of  to-day  with  the  rustic  dialects  of  antiquity. 
Unless,  for  instance,  the  dative  case  of  nouns,  and  the  optative 
and  infinitive  moods  of  verbs,  had  first  existed  in  the  vulirar 
dialects,  they  never  could  hrve  entered  into  the  polished  ones, 
the  function  of  which  is  not  to  create  out  of  nothing,  but  to 
methodize  what  is  irregular,  and  embellish  what  is  rude.  At  the 
same  time,  that  the  immense  variety  of  constructions  and  gram- 
matical forms  in  Ancient  Greek  were  employed  with  anything 
like  propriety  by  the  people  in  general  will  remain  incredible  till 
some  similar  example  be  pointed  out  in  a  living  language.  In 
the  meantime,  the  argument  against  such  a  supposition  is  an  a 
fortiori  one  from  the  present  to  the  past. 

The  Eomaic  dialects  are  in  fact,  like  the  Acropolis  of  Modern 
Athens,  a  faithful  historical  monument.  As  the  temple  of  wing- 
less victory,  the  Propylaeum,  the  Erichtheium  and  the  Parthenon 
connect  it  with  the  age  of  Pericles ;  so  do  the  ruinous  state  of 
these  erections,  the  rubbish  which  encumbers  the  stranger's  path, 
the  mediaeval  tower  at  the  entrance,  and  the  heteroireneous  wall 
which  encircles  the  crest  of  the  rock,  tell  of  repeated  disaster  and 
long  decay.  In  like  manner,  whilst  the  time-worn  Aeolo- 
Doric  basis  of  the  Romaic  dialects  connects  them  with  the 
highest  Greek  antiquity,  their  superstructure  is  mingled  with 
heterogeneous  materials  of  a  later  date,  on  which  conquerors, 
civilized  and  barbarous,  have  inscribed  their  lan^uarre  and  their 
name. 

I  conclude  these  observations  on  Romaic  by  a  third  example 
extracted  from  the  A?j/xonxa  "Aff/xara  of  Zampelius,  p.  700. 


*  S^Il.  vii.  363:  »o7l\,v.  19G:  aX^i  Horn.  Hymn  to  Ceres,  No.  5,  in 
Matthias'  edition,  line  208  :  rpi^i  11.  x  307  :  *«?»»'ll.  xxii.  74.  I  cannot  give 
the  references  for  the  other  three  examples;  but  the  reader  will  find  them 
duly  recognised  in  the  n;va|  ro'C  xarctXeyov  appended  to  the  commentary  of 
Eustathius,  who  cites  them  and  some  others  frequently  in  a  kind  of  stereo- 
typed list,  illustrative  of  what  ai)Ocope  could  do  in  the  most  ancient 
times. 


ROMAIC. 


*0  avd^ievfisvog, 

Ko^ri  cravcu^/a  x/  uj/xo^(pj^,  xai  'ffrd  (pXuj^id  '^ctiff//,svri. 
Mid,  KvPtaxTi  xcci  /xid  Aafir^ri  'ttou  ';)^o^£uav  dvrdiia^ 
K/'  6  \ai  TTiv  ryj^a^  drrh  'doj,  x/'  oiXXog  r^  /^ai^€rov<Je, 
'H  x6§f}  TiD  V«j/  <p^6vi{jjri  Tovg  x^ct^g/  xa/  roug  Xsysr 
**  Mssa,  *(rrh  rrs^iQoXi  ,aou,  '<fr^  /msstj  ^gtt^v  dvX^  jnov, 
**   E/v'  smg  iS^d-^og  'xakaiyhg^  XtQd^i  pi^u/ievo, 

Kai  ToD  rbv  ffKuffrj  d^b  r'  tffdg^  y\)\)(XA7iCL  )td  (hi  ^dpfi* 
Kaviig  dsv  aTox^/^jjxg,  xavilg  dsv  ^ToXoyiercci, 
Kai  Trig  Ma^idg  o  -^v-^^ouihg,  r'  d^to  rh  vaXXixd^t, 
Ms  r'  oj'a  ^s^i  roVxcoce,  'ffrriv  rrXdri^  rou  rh  ^dvsi' 
Mjjv  xoxx/w'^f/f,  Xuys^ri,  x'  'iXXa  *6t7^v  dyxaXid  /jlov,^* 


o6 


« 


99 


10 


« 


V.  1.  Kkiipro-revXa.  from  Kki-rrvs  and  TuXes.  The  Klephts  of  Greece  were 
patriotic  robbers  who  gloried  in  their  profession  not  less  than  the  Highland 
robbers  of  Sir  Walter  Scott's  romances.  By  affixing  cruXos  to  the  primitive, 
Romaic  forms  diminutives  even  of  things  without  life :  as  «a^a?oVot/Xov,  a  little 
ship. 

V.  2.  iravu^ia  for  Tavu^os.  ;^«<r/c*«y>},  literally,  covered  up,  from  x*^*^"/^'  or  x'""* 
in  Romaic  x'^*"-  In  the  inland  villages  this  style  of  ornament  is  still  met 
with,  strings  of  silver  coin  being  suspended  from  the  neck  across  the  breast, 
and  sometimes  also  covering  the  head.  This  treasure  is  always  the  dowry 
of  the  wearer. 

V.  3.    u^reifjta  for  ffuvifiec, 

V.  4.  Tij^a^  for  iTv^a^iy  as  from  rn^dZvy  instead  of  T»>^a<w,  Attic  rfi^iu. 

V.  5.    ^ov  'ra*  for  waw  or  otov  rtrev. 

V.  6.  Mi^«  has  become  a  Romaic  preposition  equivalent  to  hros,  and  is  very 
much  used. 

V.  7.   '^«-^Bt*yh  for  tetXaios. 

V.  8.  'ToZ  for  oToZ  means  here  whoever.  vKuxn^  for  fffiHttri  from  cnxovu.  Ancient 
Greek  had  fftixou  in  a  kindred  sense.  The  termination  ou  has  uniformly  been 
changed  into  ovu.    Ta^v  the  aor.  subj.  from  Ttova,,  the  Romaic  form  of  iTai^u, 

V.  9.    aTeXoytirai  for  ecroXoyurai.     aTox^i^riKi  for  a-rix^iSn.     The  transference 

of  the  terminations  of  the  perfect  active,  which  Romaic  has  lost,  to  the  aor. 
pas.  which  it  has  preserved,  is  another  example  of  the  confusion  pervading  its 
grammatical  forms. 

V.  10.  '^uxoutos.  Adopted  children  are  so  called  because  the  adopting  party 
expects  spiritual  benefit  from  this  exercise  of  philanthropy.  <r«xx/*a^i,  di- 
minutive from  TaXketl. 

V.  11.   /3a»i4,  for  fieikXti. 

D 


34 


ROMAIC. 


No  apology,  I  trust,  is  required  for  presenting  tlie  translation 
of  this  piece  in  our  northern  Doric,  so  much  better  adapted  than 
classic  English  to  the  expression  of  the  original. 


THE  CHAMPION. 

Forty  twa  robber  lads  lo*ed  the  same  bonnie  lass, 
A  bloomin'  sweet  lassie,  wi'  florins  belad'n. 
On  blithe  Easter  Sunday  they  danced  a'  thegether ; 
Some  look'd  at  her  here,  ithers  greeted  her  there  : 
But  the  lassie  had  gumption,  and  says  to  them  a' : 
"In  midst  o'  my  garden,  in  midst  o'  my  yard, 
"  Is  a  hoary  auld  rock,  is  a  weel-rooted  stane, 
"  Wha*  e'er  o*  ye  lifts  it  sail  hae  me  his  bride." 
No  ane  o'  them  answer'd,  no  ane  o'  them  spak ; 
But  our  Mary's  adopted,  the  braw  orphan  lad, 
Wi*  ae  ban'  lifts  the  stane,  sets  it  high  on  his  shouthcr 
**  Bonnie  lassie,  nae  blushes,  but  come  to  my  arms." 


PART  III.— MODERN  GREEK. 

At  p.  367  of  the  prolegomena  to  his  Arifionxa  "Ae/Mara  Zam- 
pelius  justly  describes  the  lawlessness  of  literary  composition  on 
the  eve  of  the  Greek  revolution  ;  and  his  language,  which  is  such 
as  the  classical  reader  can  interpret  with  ease  and  read  with  plea- 
sure, is  offered  at  the  same  time  as  a  specimen  of  the  higher  style 
of  ^lodern  Greek  at  the  present  day  :— "  'H;  H  rra  s^iTCParrMffni 
diccXsTcrix-r,;  axai/ov/tf/a;  xa/  dc-jvTu^lag,  rh  ysvog  su^/Vxsro  £/;  dhiv  ovTug 
fji^ovadi7cr,v^  &hiv  f^dXa  b-jsyjori  %al  Ss/vpjv.  To  yUag  r\\  rra^a.66^u)i 
ayXctJTTOv  svrauTuj  Ttai  rroXvyXurroy  ciyX'jjrrov  /m'sv  dia  rr^v  cra^s/fff  ^pjtfa- 
(tav  diaipdos^av,  xal  rriv  /i^ydXriv  drsXsiav  rr^g  yXou(r<r?3;,  rroXvyXurrov  ds 
xa^oV/,    sv    iXXsz-vJ/g/    r^a/x/i-ar/x^;   xolI    Suvraxr/xoD    rrig    vswrspa;,    rrag 

sxaffroz  s7.d7.ii  xrii  (Juvsysapsv  dH^sXsyxrojg  xard  rovg  xav&'vaj  rr,g  ihiag 

1 

ro\j  '^avTafftag. 

This  immense  variety  of  style  may  be  fairly  represented  by  a 
threefold  classification  of  the  writers,  into  those,  on  the  one  hand, 
who  wrote  on  the  model  of  the  classical  vocabulary  and  grammar, 
those,  on  the  other,  who  endeavoured  to  stereotype  the  incon- 

^  For  translation,  see  p.  57. 


ROMAIC. 


35 


stant  Romaic,  adopting  as  their  principle  that  the  written  lan- 
guage of  a  people  should  coincide  with  the  spoken,  and  those 
who,  avoiding  both  extremes,  sought  to  effect  a  compromise  by 
conforming  Romaic  at  once  to  Ancient  Greek  only  as  far  as  was 
consistent  with  general  intelligibility,  leaving  the  way  open  for 
subsequent  approximation  to  the  classic  model.     The  immediate 
restoration  of  Ancient  Greek  was  the  fond  delusion  of  a  few 
scholars,  and  the  adoption  of  Romaic  the  enthusiastic  expression 
of  devotion  to  the  popular  cause  on  the  part  of  a  few  poets  and 
politicians;  but  both  w^ere  wanting  in  the  elements  of  success, 
and  failure  was  due  to  the  unintelligibility  of  Ancient  Greek  on 
the  one  hand,  and  to  the  inadequacy  of  Romaic  on  the  other. 
The  compromise,  which  resulted  in  ^lodern  Greek,  gave  the 
requisite  lingual  expression  to  the  national  unity,  and  established 
that  intellectual  intercourse  betw^een  the  several  classes  of  society, 
which  is  indispensable  to  sound  national  progress.     Although,  as 
will  be  presently  shown,  its  success  must  be  ascribed  rather  to 
its  adaptation  to  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  than  to  any  con- 
cert among  writers,  yet  from  the  pow^erful  influence  which  Koraes 
exerted  in  this  direction,  both  by  precept  and  example,  the  com- 
promise goes  by  his  name,  and  he  may  justly  be  called  the  father 
of  Modern  Greek.     How  truly  he  aimed  at  the  golden  mean 
will  appear  by  the  following  extract  from  a  letter,  which  will 
serve  besides  as  a  specimen  of  his  epistolary  style  : — "  usp/  6=  rrjg 
OLToxaTaffTdcnct);    r/jg   'EXXrjvixijg   diaX'sxrov,    s'tiO-j/jltito)/   yitov  (SsQa/a  vd 
vmZdXXero    r,    xoivri    sig    roug    dvro-jg    xai'&'i/ag    ri^g    duyjxlcLg'     dXXd    rb 
rr^dy/jLa  /ms   ^aivsrai  dduvarov,    xccdojg  xa/  dXXors   ro   eha,     Na  Gs  siToJ 
rriv  d7.7]diioLMy  bh  ihai  roffr)  ^  scriOu/Jbia  fLou  vd  Idoj   rr^v  yXuffffav  'EXXtjh/- 
^ouffav,  otfog  sivai  6  ^oZog  ftov  [i>7^  /3a^wa^wt)^   d'A.6iM7i^   crsoiffdoTfi^ov   d:^  o, 
r/    ihoLi  (Sd^Qa^og.     liXsTsig  on    bh  Xu-ttouv  d'xh    to  ysvog   dvb^sg  xa/  /j^h 
'r^oxnrrriv'^    xai   /xs    2^^Xov,   ot    oroToi  bi'/tryvplZ^ovrai    o}.ov   rb    havriov,    on 
dr,XabYi  -r^sTH  vd  y^d^pu/MSv  xa/  \>d   XaXojfisv  ojg   y^d^ovfft,    xa/   XaXoZstv 
ot   ^uXo^oPoi   xai    'jb:<o^oooi.    'H    yvuj;M7i  fiov   /Ss^a/a  d'zsyst  /jLaxpdv  d'rrb 
roiouTov    6\j67r,iJ.a'     xcii   67oyjLX^oiJ.a.i    on   dv   b    g-Tro-jbaTog    'iyji    yosog    vd 
ffvyxara^ahrj  sig  to  /mst^ov  Trig  xaTaXri-^iug   tou  ^uXofioPoVj  outoj  xai  b 

J  axifjLrtiv)^  generally  pronounced  axofta,  is  the  modern  form  of  axf^hvj  which 
of  all  the  Attic  writers  Xenophon  alone  employs  for  'in,  and  he  but  once  : — 
0  ox^'Of  axfjihv  liiSain.     (Anab.  Book  IV.  eh.  3.)    See  also  Mat.  15,  16. 

2  r^exoThv,  progrcs.s,  is  no  longer  used  for  rxt^ua. 


36 


ROMAIC. 


KaraXafMZdvri  rd  XiyoiMiva  xa/  rd  yoa(p6iiiva  drrh  rh\)  (frovdaTov,  xa/ 
TotO'jTor^fj^ug  vd  cuvarravrr^dojst  xa/  it  dvo  ug  rh  /j^sffev  ri^g  xX/^axo;."  * 

It  being  a  matter  of  individual  opinion  how  far  the  ancient 
model  may  be  approximated  consistently  with  intellicTibility,^  and 
no  gi-eat  writers  having  yet  put  the  stamp  of  pre-eminent  genius 

^  For  translation,  see  p.  57. 

*  A  striking  illustration  of  this  is  afforded  by  the  pamphlet  which  Pana- 
giotes  Soutzos,  the  modern  Tyrtaeus,  published  at  Athens  in  1853,  under  the 

title,    Ng«  S^aXiiToD  y^a(po/MiV9v  Xoyov,  «   civei,rra<ris  rrs   ot^X'^'ias  'EkXvviK^ii  yXd^vtrm^ 

iy»fl««/^«»«5  h-r'o  T^»T«v."  The  war-like  appeals  of  M.  Soutzos  to  the  Greek  race, 
which  appeared  in  the  columns  of  the  *Ai^»  during  the  winter  of  1853,  are 
certainly,  to  the  mere  classical  reader,  among  the  most  intelligible  produc- 
tions of  the  Athenian  periodical  press ;  but  whether  they  are  equally  intelli- 
gible to  the  people  may  fairly  be  doubted.  The  reader  will  understand  how 
far  M.  Soutzos  has  advanced  from  the  following  rules  of  the  new  school, 
which  I  subjoin  in  his  own  words  : — 

«.  'H  yXuffira  ruv  oL^^aiu))  'EXXjjva/n  ku.)  n/uuv  raiv  nuri^cuv  tftrai  fi.i»  xai  n  eturn'  h 
T^etfAfictrixn  k«i/»*>»  xai  rifituv  la-rat  f4,ia  xa)  it  avrri. 

£'.  a;  Xi^tis,  ai  (p^dfus  ixuvu*  'irovrat  fAovai  Tx^ahxrixi'  «•««•«  3i  I'lvn  Xt|/f,  ri  (p^m<r,s 
\ivn  U  ki^KTiv  'EXXrivixati,  llo^iXitrHrovTOLt. 

y\  'H  tf-wvTal/,-  roZ  X'oyov  UiTCti  Tap  iifiTv  ov^t  fiax^a,  xa)  ha  fjtax^Zv  Tt^toiui  ffunr- 
xivavfiivn,  aXX'  'iuXfiTros,  ofiaXh  xa)  ccxXv  tii  Ta^a  roTg  a^^mloif  Teivrits  'OfArt^M  xa) 
'Ha-todM,  xa)  Ta^a  rots  tfro^txots  'H^oioru  xa)  SivefuvTi. 

l'.^  niv  Ti  ix  ruv  oKTu  f^i^Zv  red  Xoyov,  xa)  vSitra  Xi^i;,  xa)  Tatra  <p^d<ris,  xa)  Tag  iXa;- 
Tifffios  r^y  a^x«-lu*  'EXXjjva/v  Ta^aXaftSdvovrat  afia  iuxoXug  iwoeuyrai  ure  rod  ixXtxTou 
fti^ovs  ruv  'EXXjiVA/y,  xa)  ovtt  T^orZaXXevri  t/jv  dxariw.^ 

Had  not  M.  Soutzos,  in  the  course  of  his  pamphlet,  gone  out  of  his  way  to 
insult  both  the  living  and  the  dead,  he  would  probably  have  been  allowed  to 
establish  the  new  school  in  peace,  since  he  merely  proposes  to  do  that  at  once 
and  somewhat  violently,  which  is  being  accomplished  at  any  rate  naturally, 
and  by  slow  degrees.  But  having  taken  the  name  of  Koraes  in  vain,  and 
used  disrespectful  expressions  regarding  Asopios,  the  Nestor  of  Modern 
Greek  philology,  Stathopoulos,  a  pupil  of  the  latter,  and  now  teacher  at 
Tripolitza,  administered  to  him  a  castigation  vigorous  indeed  but  cruel  ac- 
cording to  the  custom  of  the  country.  The  important  point,  however,  is  that, 
even  in  this  malignant  counter-pamphlet,  the  "new  school"  is  represented 
rather  as  unnecessary  than  as  impracticable.  M.  Soutzos  is  reminded  that 
his  proposal  owes  whatever  feasibility  it  possesses  to  the  immense  progress 
which  Modern  Greek  has  made  through  the  labours  of  Koraes  and  his 
followers  ;  and  that  those,  who  build  the  walls  of  an  edifice,  should  gratefully 
remember  those  who  laid  its  foundations.  It  is  thus  acknowledged,  on  all 
hands,  that  the  language  is  in  a  transition  state,  and  that  continual  approxi- 
mation to  the  ancient  is  its  destiny. 

'  For  translation,  see  p.  58. 


ROMAIC. 


37 


on  works  in  universal  circulation  so  as  to  fix  the  literary  style,  it 
is  easier  to  say  whither  Modem  Greek  is  tending,  than  to  state 
precisely  at  what  stage  it  has  arrived.  At  the  same  time  the 
existing  diversitives  of  style  have  their  limits,  and  the  following 
general  remarks  are  offered,  as  fairly  characterising  Modern 
Greek : — 

1.  With  respect  to  its  vocabulary,  the  return  to  pure  Greek  is 
complete.  I  say  to  pure  rather  than  to  Ancient  Greek,  because 
the  new  ideas  peculiar  to  modem  civilisation  could  not  be  expressed 
in  strictly  Ancient  Greek,  without  intolerable  circumlocutions, 
and  for  them  new  but  at  the  same  time  purely  Greek  names 
have  been  invented.     Let  the  following  serve  as  examples  : — 

*H  dXkrfkiyyxjri  la  solidarite. 

*  H  hXiuhpoTurrid  the  freedom  of  the  press. 

*H  muTiTiTi  rrv^ig  the  mariner's  compass. 

*H  rrvpTrig,  ij  rrvpoxovta  gunpowder. 


Th  dia^arr}piov 
Th  dia/iLovviT7}piov 
Th  hdr^T^piov 
Th  o/noiorsXsvrov 
Th  'Travi'TiffT^/inov 
Th  rsXsfftypaipoy 
Th  u(fTsp6ypa(pov 


passport. 

permis  de  sejour. 

ticket  of  admission. 

rhyme. 

university. 

ultimatum. 

postscript. 


Koumas  suggests  in  the  prolegomena  to  his  Modem  Greek, 
Translation  of  lieimer's  Lexicon,  that,  were  a  collection  made  of 
all  the  genuine  Greek  words  that  survive  in  different  parts,  an 
essential  service  would  be  rendered  to  the  literary  language,  in- 
asmuch as  an  ancient  word  that  is  already  current  somewhere 
could  be  more  easily  popularised  than  one  that  survives  nowhere. 
It  often  happens  that,  whilst  a  foreign  word  prevails  in  one  dis- 
trict, a  genuine  Greek  synonyme  is  used  in  another :  thus  in 
Smyrna  the  evening  is  called  xgvW,  a  Turkish  word,  but  duXivhv 
in  Thessaly,  where  again  the  Turkish  iJ^rra.yjtsig  is  used  for 
the  Smyrnaean  'ripiZ6Xi(ov)  or  x^to^.  Professor  Ross  observes 
that  there  are  even  words  which,  though  not  witnessed  to  by 
any  extant  classical  author,  yet  bear  so  decidedly  the  Greek 
character  as  to  merit  admission  into  our  lexicons,  and  he  instances 
dyddufiog  irascible,  from  oiyav  and  dv/i6g.      But  such  a  collection 


38 


I 

J 


I 


ROMAIC. 


could  be  made  only  as  was  Dr  Jameson's  Scottish  dictioimrv,  by 
means  of  intelligent  correspondents  in  every  valley  and  viliii<re ; 
and  at  present  such  persons  do  not  exist  in  the  requisite  situa- 
tions throughout  Greece  enslaved,  perhaps  not  even  throughout 
Greece  free. 

The  greatest  practical  benefit  derivable  from  such  an  under- 
taking would  be  the  infusion  into  the  written  style  of  all  the 
pure  Greek  contained  in  the  spoken  ;  and  by  this  approximation 
of  the  one  to  the  other,  some  progress  would  be  made  towards 
correcting  the  great  evil  characteristic  of  the  Modern  Greek 
vocabulary,  which  is  neither  poverty  nor  corruptness,  but  un- 
settledness.  Whoever,  and  I  do  not  except  the  Greeks  them- 
selves, would  make  sure  of  interpreting  every  word  in  a  modern 
Greek  publication  which  treats  of  theories,  inventions,  or  man- 
ners essentially  modern,  had  better  surround  himself  Avith  all  the 
lexicons  in  his  library  before  sitting  down  to  its  perusal,  for  the 
author  may  now  and  then  have  employed  a  word  which  is  rare 
even  in  the  extant  classics,  or  rare  at  any  rate  in  the  sense  re- 
quired ;  or  he  may  have  employed  a  Romaic  expression  which  is 
at  the  same  time  a  provincialism.  Nor  is  this  the  whole  evil ; 
for  even  with  all  possible  lexicographic  appliances,  a  word  or 
phrase  may  refuse  to  give  up  its  meaning,  being  really  the  im- 
])rovise(l  or  concerted  equivalent  of  some  foreign  expression, 
without  a  previous  knowledge  of  which  the  meaning  cannot  be 
divined.  Byzantius,  at  p.  21  of  the  prolegomena  to  his  Modern 
Greek  Lexicon,  has  the  following  sentence  :—"' Aiirroyjsuxrsig  e7ve 

No'aoy*  aXXa  tovto  rig,  ixrog  /xo'vov  rov  yvojp/'^^ovrog  to  u\ri6roiyov  Ta/.X/- 
Tth,  da  TO  ivvon^^r,."^  The  remark  is  made  by  Byzantius  in  regard  to 
the  terminology  of  Modern  Greek,  but  it  receives  also  occasional 
illustrations  in  general  composition. 

2.  The  orthography  and  accentuation  of  Ancient  Greek  have 
been  completely  restored. 

3.  All  the  parts  of  speech  declined  by  cases  have  been  remod- 
delledon  the  ancient  Attic,  that  dialect  being  the  type  of  Modern 
Greek,  as  Aeolo-Doric  is  of  Romaic :  the  perittosyllabics  have 
been  reinstalled,  and  the  genders  are  distributed  as  of  old  ;  the 
dative  case,  however,  pai-ticidarly  in  the  plural  of  nouns  inci-easing 

^  Vor  translation,  see  p.  58. 


ROMAIC. 


39 


in  the  genitive,  is  still  sparingly  used,  and  the  Romaic  forms  are 
often  interchanged  with  the  ancient  ones  of  the  personal  and  pos- 
sessive pronouns.  The  state  of  suspense  in  which  Modem  Greek 
is  held  by  the  necessity  of  preserving  intelligibility  on  the  one 
hand,  and  by  the  tendency  toward  Ancient  Greek  on  the  other, 
is  admirably  imaged  in  the  variety  of  its  forms  for  the  relative 
pronoun.  For  all  cases  and  genders,  and  in  every"  regimen,  o  6'rohg, 
a  literal  translation  of  the  Italian  il  quale,  may  be  used ;  but  in 
the  nominative,  oong  and  ring  are  ])referred  for  the  masculine 
and  feminine,  and  o-r-cp  for  the  neuter ;  whilst  after  prepositions 
the  classical  og  ^  o,  is  very  generally  used. 

4.  The  dilapidation  of  the  verb  in  Romaic  is  such  as  to  render 
its  complete  restoration  in  Modern  Greek  impossible;  and  w^hereas, 
in  the  other  parts  of  speech,  Romaic  has  ceded  to  Ancient  Greek, 
in  this  it  has  prevailed.  The  tenses  preserved  in  Romaic,  i.e., 
the  present,  imperfect,  and  aorist,  are  indeed  often  written  in 
Modern  Greek  according  to  the  ancient  Attic  paradigms ;  the 
subjunctive  is  not  confounded  with  the  indicative,  as  it  often  is 
in  Romaic ;  and  the  participles  are  declined,  those  of  the  future 
passive,  and  of  the  aorists  active  and  passive,  having  been  at  the 
same  time  restored;  but  the  futm'e  indicative  is  formed  with  ^sXw, 
the  conditional  with  r^deXov^^  the  perfect  with  e'xS  and  the  pluper- 
fect with  ^fxov. 

Modern  Greek  has  two  futures,  according  as  the  present  or  the 
aorist  infinitive  is  subjoined  to  ^saw  :  thus, — 

&sXu  ypdptv     =^     I  shall  write  often. 

CsXiig  ypOL(pitv  x.  r.  X. 

and  ^f>^w  ypd-^nv    =     I  shall  write  once. 
dsXng  ypd-^Biv.    z.  r.  >., 

*  Trikoupes  in  his  history  constantly  uses  the  Romaic  auxiliary  ^a  (see  p. 
17),  instead  of  ^ea^^  and  jJVsXov,  and  I  approve  his  taste  ;  still  it  is  a  Romaicism 
excluded  from  Modern  Greek  by  the  great  majority  of  living  writers.  Bam- 
bas  does  not  recognise  it  in  his  Modern  Greek  grammar,  and  so  decided  is 
public  opinion  against  the  preservation  of  ^a  in  written  composition,  that 
some  of  the  Athenian  Uttcrateurs  who,  like  Trikoupes,  would  themselves 
prefer  it,  abstain  from  its  use  lest  their  style  should  be  decried.  This 
diversity  is  only  another  illustration  of  that  unsettledness  which  is  the  charac- 
teristic defect  of  Modern  Greek ;  and  the  gradual  exclusion  of  6a,  from 
written  composition  in  deference  to  public  opinion,  is  a  specimen  of  the 
means  by  which  a  definite  form  will  be  at  length  given  to  every  part  of  the 
language. 


40 


KOMAIC. 


The  former  denotes  a  future  action  which  is  to  be  repeated,  and 
may  therefore  be  called  the  continuative  future ;  the  latter,  a 
single  future  action,  and  may  therefore  be  called  the  future  de- 
finite. For  example,  /  shall  icrite  to-morrow  to  mi/  parentSj  would 
be  translated:  Aup/ov  d'sXcu  ypd-^nv  hg  rovs  yovsTg  fiov;  but.  Hence' 
forth  I  shall  write  more  regularly  to  mi/  jyarents,  'E/f  rb  tj^f  diXu 
ypdptv  raxTixu>Tspcc  sig  rhvg  yovsTg  /xov.  In  like  manner,  in  the  pas- 
sive voice,  ^s>.w  ypd^sffdai,  and  ^s^-fi**  y^af  ^^v(a/)/ 

There  is  a  diversity  of  opinion  regarding  the  word  ypd-^nv  in 
dsXu  7/?a4/g/(i/),  some  taking  it  for  the  ancient  future  infinitive,  and 
others  for  the  third  person  singular  of  the  aorist  subjunctive  ; 
these  of  course  maintaining  that  it  should  be  written,  ypd-^fi. 
According  to  analogy,  it  ought  to  be  the  aorist  infinitive,  since 
in  ^£>^w  ypci(pdn\i{ai)  the  aorist  appears,  as  also  in  &'i>-(^  sXOsTv,  the 
future  of  'ipx^fj'ai,  dsXu  ilpih,  the  future  of  s^^/Vxw,  QiXm  ideh,  the 
future  of  CXsTw,  and  many  others.  The  only  reason  for  a  con- 
trary supposition  is  that  the  ancient  aorist  infinitive  was  y^a-vj/a/, 
and  not  ypd-^uv :  but  since  Romaic,  in  its  aversion  to  classic 
anomalies,  has  made  the  aorist  imperative  ypoi-^i,  instead  of 
ypd-^ov,  why,  having  lost  the  future  altogether,  should  it  not  have 
given  to  the  aorist  infinitive,  whilst  that  mood  still  survived,  the 
termination  siv  ? 

The  formation  of  the  conditional  is  analogous  to  that  of  the 
future,  ^dsXov  ypdpiy  answering  to  iypa:pov  dv  in  classic  Greek,  and 

TJhXov  ypd-^iiv  to  'iypu-^ct,  dv. 

The  use  of  d^Xu  as  a  mere  auxiliary  is  not  unknown  to  classic 
writers.  Herodotus  (i.  32)  has  the  following  phrase : — i/  6s  dn 
shXridii  To'jTspov  Tutv  srsu>v  /j,7ivt  /Mdy-poTipov  yivsadai  ==  but  if  every  other 
year  should  become  longer  by  a  month.  For  other  examples  in 
the  same  author  see  i.,  109,  ii.,  11,  14,  99. 

The  perfect  and  pluperfect  active  are  formed  as  follows  : — 
sy^u  ysypafi^svov,  or  ?%«  ypd-^^siv,    =    I  have  written. 

and  i'x^v  yiypa,u>/Mvov,  or  B^yjy  ypd-^nv,  ==  I  had  written. 

^^X^i  99  ^^X^^  99  ^'  r,  X. 

the  participle  in  the  first  form  agreeing  in  gender,  number,  and 
case  with  the  object  of  the  verb.     The  corresponding  tenses  of 

*  The  letters  enclosed  within  the  parenthesis  are  never  wrHen,  and  the 
final  V  in  all  these  forms  of  the  future  is  very  generally  omitted. 


\ 


ROMAIC. 


41 


the  passive  voice  are  expressed  by  means  of  the  substantive  verb 
and  the  perfect  participle,  as  were  the  subjunctive  and  optative 
of  these  tenses  even  in  classic  times.  But  these  forms  for  the 
perfect  and  pluperfect  are  little  used,  the  aorist  being  employed 
in  Modern,  as  it  also  was  in  Ancient  Greek,  instead  of  the  perfect 
and  pluperfect,  wherever  this  can  be  done  consistently  with  per- 
spicuity. 

To  mark  more  distinctly  at  once  the  imperfection  and  the  pro- 
gress of  Modern  Greek  in  relation  to  the  verb,  some  remarks  of 
a  less  positive  character  must  be  added.  It  cannot  be  said,  for 
example,  that  verbs  in  /tt/,  or  the  aorists  middle,  have  been  re- 
stored, yet  they  are  occasionally  used  ;  sometimes  also  the  optative 
occurs  in  the  truly  optative  sense  ;  the  infinitive,  taken  substan- 
tively, is  common,  but  after  a  verb  it  is  resolved,  as  in  Romaic, 
by  vd  with  the  subjunctive ;  also  the  classic  e///'/  is  disputing  the 
ascendancy  of  the  Romaic  e/^aa/. 

5.  In  regard  to  construction,  the  same  unsettledness  prevails 
as  in  the  vocabulary.  The  ancient  canons  regarding  concord  are 
indeed  universally  observed;  but  those  regarding  government 
are  very  much  at  the  discretion  of  the  writer.  All  the  preposi- 
tions have  been  restored  except  a/^^/,  and  their  ancient  siyntax  is 
generally  attended  to  :  a-ro,  however,  is  often  allowed  to  retain 
the  accusative  case  to  which  it  has  been  so  long  wedded  in  the 
popular  dialects ;  fis,  the  truncated  /xsm,  is  often  used  with  the 
accusative  instead  of  the  modal  and  instrumental  dative  of  the 
ancients  ;  and  only  a  few  verbs  are  yet  construed  with  the  simple 
genitive  or  dative  recpiired  by  ancient  syntax,  instead  of  the 
Romaic  analysis  by  drrb  or  sJg  with  the  accusative.  In  short,  here 
also  reappears  the  fact  of  a  compromise,  of  which,  however,  the 
final  terms  have  yet  to  be  settled. 

The  vagueness  of  the  above  indications,  however  displeasing 
to  the  classical  scholar  familiar  with  the  rectilineal  distinctness 
of  the  ancient  Attic  grammar,  is  nevertheless  necessitated  by  the 
j)resent  fluctuating  state  of  Modern  Greek,  and  is  really  an  enco- 
mium on  the  good  sense  of  Modern  Greek  writers ;  for  it  mani- 
fests their  conviction  that  only  by  carrying  the  nation  along  with 
it  can  the  language  truly  advance.  How  just  were  the  notions 
entertained  by  Koraes  regarding  scholastic  interference  with  a 
living  language  will   appear  from  the   third   of  the  following 


42 


ROMAIC. 


extracts,  which  are  taken  from  page  144  of  AI.  Sophocles' 
Chrestomathy,  and,  thougli  in  what  would  now  be  called  an 
humble  style,  represent  the  model  AFodeni  Greek  of  fifty  years 
ago:— 

1.  " Orav  ra  (puriff/is'va,  'iOvri  ZdXujffiv  apyriv  vot  r]h\jvci)wat  sig  to.  a/V- 
XPOLy  aXXri  t6ui  Csparrsia  dsv  fihu  rrXsov  di*  alra  'rapu  vu  krtffTp'i:puffi  xai 
TaX/v  itg  rr^v  ap'/atav  durojv  ZapZaporrira. 

2.  'H  iXkif>\iic,  TU9  /JLsydy.uv  sXarru/xdrctiv  h;  rlug  dvyypa^iTi 
T^oU^iTai  ToXXdyjg  drrh  dc^lvnav  rou  vohg,  (ir,r  ilvcti  rrdvror^  dcroTtXeffiLa 
T^f  xo/v^;  dosTTig  rou  xa/^oD  sig  rhv  orroTov  ypdfovffiv  oXh/ov  ^owe/ra/  vd 
crg(j>;  ocr/s  bsv  'i/jbaOs  vd  rr'ersrai  u-vJ/Tjacc. 

3.  'O/  Xoyioi  civd^sg  roD  ^dvoug  fivai  (p'jgixd  o'l  vo/j,o&srat  rr^g  yXuxfffi^g, 
rr,v  oro/av  XaXsT  rh  idvog'  dXX'  slvai  i/o/xo^sra/  hriiLOTioarixoZ  rrpdy/xaTog, 
'Eig  duTO'jg  dvrjy.si  37  di6pl)M(rig  rrig  yXuxrerig^  dXX^  ri  yXuiCCa  ihai  xr^^aa 
oXov  rou  sdvovg,  xa/  xr^/xa  /s^o'vj 

Valuable  as  w^re  the  contributions  of  Koracs  to  Modern 
Greek,  Modem  Greek  itself,  as  deriving  from  Komaic  on  the 
one  hand,  and  from  ancient  Attic  on  the  other,  was  neither 
improvised  by  him  nor  claimed  to  be  so.  These  elements,  to  one 
of  which  Modern  Greek  owes  its  intelligibility,  and  to  the  other 
its  power  of  indefinite  expansion  and  improvement,  were  in 
presence  throughout  all  the  Byzantine  period  ;  for,  on  the  one 
hand,  the  succession  has  never  been  broken  of  Greeks  who  not 
only  studied  the  Ancient,  but  composed  in  it  treatises  on  a  great 
variety  of  subjects,  whilst,  on  the  other,  Romaic  was  in  the 
mouths  of  the  people,  and  known  to  scholars  as  the  popular 
dialect.  Though  known  by  them  only  to  be  despised,  yet,  the 
course  of  things,  in  language  as  in  nature,  being  irresistible, 
they  employed  it  in  their  familiar  conversational  and  epistolary 
style;  and,  in  tracing  the  origin  of  Modem  Greek,  it  is  essential 
to  consider,  not  the  compositions  of  the  15th  and  subsequent 
centuries  which  betray  a  sedulous  imitation  of  ancient  authors, 
but  those  in  which  the  educated  of  that  period  express  their 
thoughts  with  more  or  less  freedom,  and,  as  it  were,  extempore. 

Two  such  examples  are  given  in  the  appendix  to  Kodrikas' 
work  already  mentioned,  one  a  speech  delivered  by  the  emperor 
John  Paleologos  in  a  private  meeting  of  the  eastern  ])relates  in 
the  patriarch's  house  at  Florence,  and  the  other  a  letter  written 

*  For  translation,  see  p.  58. 


ROMAIC. 


43 


in  1405  by  Cardinal  Bessarion,  one  of  the  few  Greeks  who 
joined  tlie  papal  church,  to  the  tutor  of  the  last  Greek  emperor's 
three  nej)hews,  sons  of  Thomas  Porphyrogenitus.  This  letter 
has  been  preserved  by  Phrantzes,  and  may  be  found  at  p. 
416  of  the  Bonn  edition  (1838)  of  his  history.  The  Cardinal 
begins  with  classical  Greek,  but  soon  descends  to  a  more  fa- 
miliar style;  and  although,  from  the  publicity  and  solemnity 
of  the  occasion,  the  emperor's  speech  is  more  carefully  worded 
throughout,  yet  the  conversational  llomaic  now  and  then  pierces 
through. 

The  first  extract  is  from  the  body  of  the  Cardinal's  letter,  as 
follows: — " 'H  svyivslcc  <Jou^  ihai  'Kard  ro  'raohv  uff'rrs^  dioizrirrig  rcuv 
rraidlojv  /nsrd  tou  Kpitoto-jXov,  Rhai  yovv  dvdy/.ri  I'^o  'xdvruv  vd 
(p^ovTi6r,ri  TTiV  rraihiuGtv  roiv,  xa/  rd  r,dri  rojv.  Na  yivovv^  xaXd  Ttai 
m'Tatbiv/jjiva,  av  dsXsTS  vd  s^ouv  ri/Mrtv  sdu,^  h  hi  ^^,  &sXo-jv  rd  xara- 
^^ovTiffstv,  xa/  dvrd  xa/  sffdg  \du),  xa/  ovds  (frpafsTv  fsXovv  vd  odg  IhoZv. 
Me  rh  (Lav.aoirr^v  *  rov  d'oOhrtiV  rh  rrars^a  rovg  sffvvruy^a/Miv  moi  rourou* 
xa/  exs/vog  s^ovXiro  vd  rd  svdvcrr},  xa/  vd  rd  rroirjcrrj  vd  l^oZv  (poayyiy.d 
rravrsXoog^  riyovv  vd  djcoXovihZffi  rriV  exxXTjC/av  y.ard  "Trdvrcc  ojffdv  Aar/voi, 
xa/  o^t  dXXiOjg,  vd  hd'jvuvrai  Aarivixug,  vd  /MaOovv  vd  yovarCCpMv  rovg 
vr:2Psy^ovrag,  xa/  Ila-ra  xa/  y.aohivaXio'jg  xa/  ro-jg  dXXoug  avOsvrac,  vd 
dcroffxsrrd'C^ctjvrai  rh  xs^dXiv  rou;  vd  ri/xujffi  ro-jg  ^atPiruvrag  dxjro-jg, 
" Orav  u-rdyo'jv  vd  IboZv  xa^hivdXriv  ri  dXXov  o/moiov  dvdsvrr,v,  vd  fMTjbsv 
xaOlffovv  rroffojg,  d/Jbri^  vd  yovar/'C^ovv  xa/  drrszr},'  orav  roug  sirrjj  sxuvog, 
m  (fi^xoj&ouffiv.  'O  6-  [j^axa^irrig  sTiuvog  tXsysv  on  xa/  'XoVJ^dxtg  av  rovg 
rh  uTCtjffi,  vd  iir^hiV  xaQr^doiGiv.  'Aura  ovv  o?wa  s\>dvfj,affOs  rd  vd  rovg 
vovOBrr,ffsr£,  xa/  vd  rovg  rraidivffsrs  xaXa.  ^'Er/  co/^rrsrs  on  ro  Zdoi(SiMd 
rovg  vd  eivon  ffB/ivov  xa/   rl/Miov,  rj  o/x/A/'a  rovg  -^priCfi/MMrdrri,   xai  95  (puvrj 

1  'H  tvyivt!a.  aeu  is  no  title  of  rank  now  at  least,  but  a  polite  expression  by 
which  the  party  addressed  is  indicated  without  being  named. 
^  Romaic  still  prefers  the  active  form  of  ytvouat. 

3  iSi  for  uh.  Professor  Ross  noticed  a  similar  metathesis  in  the  island  of 
Astypahea,  where  beasts  of  burden  are  called  not  K^a,  as  elsewhere,  but  e^^a. 

4  f^xKet^lrnv,  as  a  German  would  say  "  mciu  seli<jcr  Vater'' — my  late  (lite- 
rally blessed)  fiither. 

6  afih=eiv  fAti  cauie  to  bc  a  Romaic  equivalent  for  axxa^  according  to 
Koraes,  because  oiv  f^h  and  akkd  can  be  interchanged  in  certain  cases ;  thus 
xaxa  TO  Uafits — you  havc  donc  wrong  ;  af^h  ts  nhy.u  va  Ka(iu — but  {i.e.  if  not 
that)  what  would  you  havc  me  do  ? 


44 


EOMAIC. 


Toug  m  ilmi  ^sr^la  xai  rj^sf^la,  Tb  ^Xsjii^a.  roug  'TT^offsxnxhv,  va.  fi^dsv 
X<^(^XM(fiv  idudsv  xaxsWiv.  ''A$  r/fioZv  'rdvrac,  ag  dyeLToZv  <^dvTag,  ag 
6\iV7\j-/im6i  rrdvra;,  xai  roug  sdixcug  ruv  ^  xal  roCg  ^svovg,  fisrd  n/Mrig, 
Mridsv  ihcn  d7.aZ^ovixoi^  ag  ihai  rarrsnoi  xai  rtpe/ior  xai  /Mtidsv  hOufiovvrai 
on  aval  ^affiXiug  drroyovoi,  d,(iri  a;  hdv/Movirai  on  ihai  diCijy/Msvoi  d'xh 
rhv  TO'Tov  Tuv,  op:pa\io},  gsvo/,  oXozru^or  on  uvat  %fe/a  yd  Zouy  d^b  ^sva, 
-/ipia-  xai  on  dv  bh  'iy^uctv  dperriv,  dv  oudsv  ilmt  (ppoviiMoi^  dv  oudsv 
sJvai  ravsivoi,  dv  ovdsv  ni^coGi  'rdvrag,  ovds  roug  dsXovv  njtiriffsiv  bt  dXkoi, 
dfj.fl  CsXouv  roug  drroffrps^iffdai  rrdvrsg.  ^ Aura  ouv  oXa  <pp6vn<f6  rd 
xaXd  7]  suyivsia  ffou  jtisrd  xai  rou  KpirorrouXou*"^ 

The  emperor's  speech  begins  thus  : — 

HfisTg  varspsg  dyioi  rtXdo/xsv  oTuffdyirrori  sv  rri  (t>payyia,  xai  syu 
bubsv  ixivrjdrixa  /lovog  iXdsTv.  'Ouds  iyoj  riP^d,(ir,v  raur^v  rr,v  urrodeaiv 
TTpairog,  dXX'  hdufisTcds  on  6  'xartjp  /nou,  6  ^atftXsug,  drrb  rbv  xaipbv 
o'xoi)  T]y  hg  rb  s'^a,(i/;Xiov,^  xai  UtuXz  rbv  sudai/xova  *Iudvvriv  sxihov  sig 
rriv  'iraX/av,  xai  np^aro  rou  roiourou  spyow  s'xiffraffdi  ydp  rbv  CaaiXsa, 
rbv  'Trarspa  [mou,  xai  rriv  yvutm  durou  xai  rr^v  rrpd^iv,  on  ou  /ut^ovov 
vrrrip^sv  dpierog  ^/XoVofog,  dXXd  xai  ruv  doyjxdruv  rrig  sxxX7}<riag 
XsTrrorarog  s^TjyrirTjg,  ^^^X^  ydp  auvrjyopov  xai  rbv  Ilarpidpx^v 
sxsTvov  xupiv  *Eudu/j.iov,  rbv  ovrug  hdpkrov  xai  koXoyov  dxporarov, 
Tocourot  b\  xai  rriXixouroi  urrdpyjvng  bvx  horitfav  rou  roiourov  spyou  rr^v 
6^iXitpri(fiv,  dXXd  xai  rjp^avro,  xai  ItsOu/xouv  rsXsiuiffai  duro.  'O  xaipbg 
ds  £>To8/<r£  rouTO'  £(pdaffsv  buv  rb  spyov  xai  sig  ijfidg,  ou^  w^-^rgp  eig  roug 
rrpb  r,fMc!jv^  dXXd  xai  /xdXXov  xpsirrorspug,"  ^ 

In  the  first  of  ihese  exani[)les  the  CardinaPs  Romaic  is  elevated 
somewhat  by  his  knowledge  of  Ancient  Greek,  and  in  the  second 
the  emperor's  Ancient  Greek  is  lowered  by  his  daily  habit  of 


*  Thus  are  formed  the  Romaic  possessive  pronouns : — 

«  ihxos  (Aov  =  my.  «  lltKOi  fias  =  our. 
„  „  rov  =  [iijr.  „  ,j  faf  =  your. 
„    „     rov  =  his  or  its.  „     „     tovs  i  .,    • 


»>     » 


TAfV 


!= 


rou  =  thy. 
rov  =  his  or  its. 
„    „     TVS  =  her  or  its. 
i^xof  used  frequently  to  be  written  as  in  the  text,  with  an  initial  i. 
2  For  translation,  see  p.  58. 

»  l|a^»7X/.v,  the  isthmus  of  Corinth,  so  called  from  the  distance  across  being 
about  six  miles. 

*  xy^/v  for  xv^,ou  There  are  very  early  instances  of  the  termination  ios 
being  contracted  into  /?,  see  No.  284  of  Boekh's  collection  of  inscriptions, 
where  Anftnr^ts  occurs  for  Arifivr^ios. 

*  For  translation,  see  p.  59. 


ROMAIC. 


45 


speaking  almost  Romaic  in  familiar  conversation ;  for  the  Car- 
dinal could  not  have  admitted  so  much  Romaic  into  a  letter, 
unless  such  had  been  the  style  of  familiar  conversation  among 
the  learned  of  that  period.  That  the  Cardinal  did  not  attempt 
fine  Avriting  is  very  evident ;  and  that  the  emperor,  without  aim- 
ing at  classicism,  spoke  naturally  in  the  somewhat  higher  stvle 
which  the  occasion  demanded,  appears  from  the  use  of  sxivyjdrixa 
for  exivridnvy  from  the  construction  first  of  rip^d/jLriv  with  the  ac- 
cusative, and  then  of  TJp^aro  with  the  genitive,  as  well  as  from 
the  accusative  with  drro*  These  instances  of  negligence  disprove 
all  affectation  of  propriety ;  and  it  is  thus  clearly  established 
that,  towards  the  close  of  the  Byzantine  empire,  there  was  being 
formed  amongst  the  educated,  without  any  set  purpose  whatever, 
and  merely  under  the  force  of  circumstances,  a  middle  dialect 
between  the  Ancient  Greek  of  professedly  literary  composi- 
tions on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Romaic  of  the  vulvar  on  the 
other. 

Although  this  medley  of  classicism  and  vulgarism  continued  to 
circulate  among  the  learned — because  though  base  it  w^as  conve- 
nient coin — after  the  fall  of  Constantinople,  as  I  doubt  not  it 
also  circulated  amongst  them  many  centuries  before,  yet  its  only 
chance  of  recognition  and  purification  lay  in  the  emancipation  of 
the  Greek  mind,  in  the  disruption  of  the  scholastic  system  which 
confined  all  learning  to  the  study  of  the  ancients,  and  in  the  con- 
sequent demand  for  a  truly  national  language  and  literature. 
That  period  came,  and  Eugenius  was  its  "  representative  man." 

Born  at  Corfu  in  1716  of  an  ancient  and  honourable  but  no 
longer  wealthy  family,  he  seems  to  have  early  attracted  attention 
by  his  capacity  for  learning.  By  the  liberality  of  certain  mer- 
chants, he  was  enabled  to  study  in  Italy  and  other  countries, 
where  he  acquired  the  Latin,  Italian,  French,  German,  and 
Hebrew  languages,  together  with  an  immense  stock  of  miscella- 
neous lore.  In  his  voluminous  works  he  appears  as  a  preacher 
and  divine,  a  mathematician  and  philosopher,  but  his  most 
efficient  services  were  rendered  in  the  direction  of  schools,  or 
rather,  as  from  the  higher  instruction  dispensed  they  should  be 
called,  colleges,  which  the  Greeks  in  Turkey  had  full  liberty  to 
maintain  at  their  own  expense. 

To  estimate  these  services  aright  it  must  be  remembered  that, 


46 


KOMAIC. 


ROMAIC. 


47 


at  the  beginninrr  of  last  century,  the  Greek  mind,  no  less  than 
the  Greek  nationality,  was  in  bondacre  :  Turkish  donu'nation 
chained  up  the  one,  ecclesiastical  l>igotry  locked  up  the  other. 
In  1715  one  of  Eugenius'  predecessors  in  the  direction  of  the 
school  at  Jannina,  by  only  a  cursory  reference  to  ^lalebranche, 
gave  offence  to  the  clergy,  who  in  philosophy  tolerated  only  the 
pagan  Aristotle  ;  and  this  spint  of  exclusiveness  was  extended  to 
subjects  the  most  remote  from  theology. 

Wherever  Eugenius  presided  he  introduced  mathematical 
studies,  and  over  the  gate  of  the  school  on  ]\Iount  Athos,  of 
which  he  was  the  first  director,  he  had  Plato's  dictum  inscribed:— 

Ysu/Msrpyjffojv  sifflroj'  lu  km/.voj. 

In  philosophy,  from  the  just  balance  of  his  own  mind  no  less  than 
from    the   policy  dictated  by  his   circumstances,   he   prelected 
rather  as  a  critic  than  as  the  advocate  of  a  system,  usually  giving 
two  series  of  lessons  on  the  same  subject,  in  the  course  of  which 
he  expounded  the  views  of  two  difiWent,  often  of  two  adverse 
authors.     Notwithstanding   this   moderation,   however,  he  was 
manifestly  a  reformer,  and  therefore  all  who  kept  plodding  along 
the  beaten  track  which  he  had  left,  became  his  enemies.     Ik- 
cause,  holding  tradition  comparatively  cheap,  he  thought  it  worth 
while  to  meet  philosophers  on  their  own  ground,  and  show  the 
compatibility  of  reason  with  revelation,  the  monks  alleged  that 
infidelity  was  preaching  from  the  professorial  chair ;  ami  gram- 
marians were  found  among  his  colleague^  who  stigmatized  his 
lessons  in  arithmetic  and  geometry  as  superfluous  and  useless. 
('rtsf^irra  xct}  ayjr.Gra.)     But    for  the   prestige  of  his  sacerdotal 
character,  the  popularity  of  his  preaching,  and  the  fame  of  his 
learning,  this  outciy  of  bigots,  clerical  and  scholastic,  would  have 
shut  up  at  its  threshold  his  useful  career ;  and  it  did  avail  to 
drive  him  successively  from  the  directorship  of  the  schools  at 
Jannina,  on  Mount  Athos,  and  in  Constantinople.     On  this  last 
occasion   (1765)  he  retired  to  Germanv,  where  he  spent  ten 
years,   chiefly  at  Leipsic,  publishing  his"  works.     Of  these  his 
logic,  written  in  Ancient  Greek,  became  the  basis  of  all  philoso- 
phical study  to  the  Greeks ;  and  the  contents  of  his   v.Ta.r/ 
"'E.rpiTo.  (threefold  cord.     See  Ecclesiastes  iv.   12),  written  i 


in 


the  middle  dialect  referred  to  above,  which,  under  the  pen  of 
Eugenius,  received  almost  the  very  form  it  now  has  under 
the  name  of  Modern  Greek,  show  how  eager  he  was  to  build 
up  the  faith  of  his  countrymen  on  a  solid  foundation.  These 
contents  are  translations  of  Soame  Jenyns  on  the  divinity  of 
Christianity,  Desaubre  on  the  internal  credibility  of  the  Evan- 
gelists, and  Calmet  on  the  genealogy  of  Christ.  These  transla- 
tions, indeed,  seem  to  have  been  intended  as  remedies  against  an 
anticipated  evil,  for  Eugenius  had  a  good  deal  of  intercourse 
and  many  discussions  with  Voltaire  at  Berlin,  and  thus  learned 
to  appreciate  the  dangers  of  that  mental  revolution  which 
obtained  so  terrible  an  expression  on  the  political  arena  of  France 
towards  the  close  of  his  own  life. 

In  1775,  on  the  invitation  of  Catherine  II.,  he  went  to  St 
Petersburg,  where,  after  directing  for  a  short  time  an  institution 
for  the  education  of  young  Bussian  nobles,  he  was  raised  to  the 
priesthood,  having  j^reviously  had  only  deacon's  orders,  and 
appointed  bishop  of  Sclavonia  and  Kherson.  He  afterwards 
demitted  his  bishopric,  and  returned  to  St  Petersburg,  where, 
piu'suing  his  learned  studies  to  the  last,  he  died  in  180G. 

A  detailed  biography  of  Eugenius,  for  which,  however,  the 
materials  are  not  known  to  exist,  would  unfold  to  our  view  that 
awakening  of  the  Greek  mind  under  which  the  Turkish  yoke 
became  insupportable,  and  the  struggle  for  national  independence 
a  necessity.  From  the  period  of  the  schism  until  Eugenius, 
the  only  intellectual  commerce  between  the  east  and  west  of 
Europe  consisted  in  works  of  controversial  theology,  so  numerous 
indeed  as  to  form  of  themselves  an  extensive  library  ;  but,  from 
the  abstruseness  of  their  subjects,  of  doubtful  edification  to  their 
authors,  and  absolutely  barren  to  the  people.  Eugenius,  how- 
ever, brought  the  Greek  mind  into  contact  with  the  science  and 
philosophy  of  the  west,  and  from  his  time  till  now,  Greek  scho- 
lars have  been  eagerly  aj)propriating,  after  his  example,  the 
accumulated  treasures  of  Italy  and  France,  Germany  and  Eng- 
land. Now,  for  the  expression  of  this  immense  amount  of  various 
new  matter,  the  classical  vocabulary  no  longer  sufficed,  as  when 
Aristotle  was  the  only  master  of  philosophy,  and  Euclid  of 
mathematics  in  the  Greek  schools.  At  the  very  outset  of  his 
admirable  treatise  on  Religious  Toleration,  Eugenius  finds  it 


48 


ROMAIC. 


KOMAIC. 


49 


convenient  to  frame  a  new  word,  dvs^idpnffxsi'a,  that  should  exactly 
express  that  idea,  and  so  in  a  thousand  other  instances.  Besides, 
in  consequence  of  the  mental  awakening,  before  Eut^enius  ended 
his  career,  it  was  no  loncrer  a  few  liundred  youths  that  were  to 
be  taught  science  and  philosophy,  but  a  whole  nation,  unprac- 
tised in  Ancient  Greek,  that  was  to  be  instructed  in  its  rights, 
animated  to  their  vindication,  and,  if  successful,  guided  in  their 
exercise.  A  dialect  intelligible  to  all,  and  at  the  same  time  ade- 
quate to  the  expression  of  whatever  belongs  to  modem  civilization, 
thus  became  educationally  and  politically  a  national  want ;  nor 
can  the  fact  be  otherwise  accounted  for  that  all  learned  Greeks, 
who  are  at  the  same  time  public-sj^irited  citizens  and  practical 
men,  have  discarded  Ancient  Greek  in  their  compositions,  and 
adopted  the  Modern. 

Eugenius'  greatest  feat  in  respect  of  Greek  was  his  translation 
into  Homeric  verse  of  Virgil's  Georgics  and  ^neid  ;  but,  as 
regards  the  subject  of  these  pages,  it  remains  only  to  give  a 
specimen  of  what  may  be  called  his  Modern  Greek.  The  follow- 
ing is  the  second  paragraph  of  his  tract  on  Religious  Toleration : 
"  esXo/L£v  rhv  anlidpriS'/,ov^  ^nhur^v  svffsQstag^  dia  voc  ^jlt}  rhv  iyyi^iv 
adid(popov.  'O  ddidf;opog  osv  'rrd^xu'  6  d-Tocdrig,  xai  dvdXynrog  dmiGdnnT, 
0  dyctiG&7iru)\)  hg  ri  i/a  yufivdgri,  xai  hg  ri  vd  smds/^r}  rriv  dvrou  dvoyri^ ; 
xa/  l%img  hg  rh  brroTov  oub-v  diappn,  sirs  touto  sirs  ixsTvo  rriffrsUrai, 
To/av  Tors  d'sXsi  XaCs/  Tspi  rd  Tiffrsvrsa  fispifjumvy  (ppovrida,  oXug  smffr- 
pop^v ;  *Ou5si/  Tphg,  durov  rd  rrjg  rritrrsoog  rriffriv  diupiff/jLs\tug  firi  lyowa, 
*Avs^idp7}ffzog  dh  yivsrai  xvpiojg  6  roiourog,  dXA   slvai  udpricxog'^  ^ 

That  middle  dialect,  of  which  the  above  is  an  example,  Euge- 
nius employed  only  in  his  more  popular  works,  and  was  far  from 
contemplating  that  universal  sovereignty  which  Modem  Greek 
has  now  acquired.  All  his  strictly  philosophical  writings  are  in 
ancient  Greek,  and  he  scouts  in  no  very  gentle  terms  the  idea  of 
teaching  philosophy  in  a  popular  dialect,  in  his  Logic,  page  50, 
he  says  : — '*  ToTg  ydp  h  u^pu  y^'^dcciuj  Tapsvv^aff/jLsvoig  syKo/x^oCjdsvoi  pXo- 
6o(pi7(.oTg  Xs^idioig,  dvrou  {movovoxj-x)  roZ  rrjg  yvuxfsug  v-^^ovg  rfj  xspaXfj 
•vj^aug/v  soixaffi'  xai  <piXo6o(po\ivrsg  drraids-jrug,  dvorir..mu(fi  vsavixug. 
"Excfupixrsov  apa  rd  yjjbaicri  (piXoffopTv   srrayysXXo/Msva  QiZXiddpia,  rrjg 

]  anl'ti^nrxty.    This,  and  the  cognate  terms,  which  Eugenius  framed,  were 
received  into  the  language,  and  are  now  in  common  use. 
*  For  translation,  see  p.  59. 


KXXdbog  ^Mvrig  ug  oiov  rs  sTifxsXou/Msvovg,  ^g  dvsu  oudz  rm  ^dXai  rrs^iXoGo- 
<prix6ru)v  sffrh  drromffdai.''  ^  His  influence  on  the  lano;uafre  therefore 
was  mainly  indirect ;  he  pi-epai'ed  the  way  for  a  change  in  it  by 
developing  the  svdidf)iTog  Xoyog  of  the  nation;  the  direct  influence 
was  to  be  exerted  by  others,  and  the  man  whose  writings  contri- 
buted most  to  methodise  and  recommend  modern  Greek,  was 
Koraes. 

Born  at  Smyrna  in  1748,  the  two  sentiments,  which  formed  his 
main-springs  of  action  throughout  life,  were  early  developed, 
namely,  patriotism,  synonymous  in  his  case  with  hatred  of  the 
Turk,  and  a  passion  for  learning.  In  his  native  town  he  was 
greatly  assisted  in  his  lingual  and  other  studies  by  the  Dutch 
consular  chaplain,  Bernhard  Keun,  of  whom  he  makes  frequent 
and  affectionate  mention  in  his  autobiography  and  correspondence. 
At  the  age  of  twenty-four  he  became  his  father's  mercantile 
agent  at  Amsterdam,  where  he  spent  six  years ;  but  the  ledger 
was  the  least  interesting  of  his  books,  and  in  1778  he  was 
recalled.  He  returned  with  the  greatest  reluctance,  because  his 
darling  project  was  to  study  medicine  in  France,  in  order  that, 
should  he  be  obliged  to  live  among  the  Turks,  he  might  exercise 
among  them  the  only  profession  which  procured  respectful  treat- 
ment for  the  Greeks.  After  four  melancholy  years  at  Smyrna, 
his  wishes  were  at  length  complied  with,  and  in  1782  he  arrived 
at  Montpellier.  He  distinguished  himself  in  this  famous  medical 
school,  and,  having  obtained  his  diploma,  removed  to  Paris  in 
1788,  where,  instead  of  practising  his  profession,  he  engaged  in 
literary  labours,  most  of  them  having  a  patriotic  aim,  and  where 
he  died  in  1833. 

Let  no  one  conclude,  from  the  fame  of  Koraes  in  connection 
with  Modern  Greek,  that  in  general  scholarship  he  was  inferior 
to  the  best  of  his  cotemporaries ;  on  the  contrary,  his  researches 
into  Modern  Greek  disclose  his  immense  erudition  in  the  Ancient, 
of  which  besides  he  gave  other  and  special  proofs.  Few  could 
have  produced  a  translation  of  Hippocrates  T'spi  dspojv^  Mrc^jv,  %al 
r6TM\  equal  to  that  which  he  published  in  1800,  with  long  prole- 
gomena and  notes.  Nor  was  his  scholarship  unacknowledged  by 
his  cotemporaries.  Napoleon  selected  him  to  prepare  a  transla- 
tion of  Strabo's  geography,  the  first  volume  of  which  was  pre- 

^  For  translation,  see  p.  60. 

£ 


i)i) 


KOMAIC. 


ROMAIC. 


sented  to  the  emperor  in  1805.  In  a  letter  dated  Leyden,  July 
22d  of  that  same  year,  Wyttenbach,  writing  to  Larcher,  calls 
Koraes  "  not  only  a  Grecian,  but  a  verita])le  Greek."  In  1807, 
his  edition  of  Isocrates  procured  for  him  the  title  "Patriarch  of 
Greek  Philology,"  and  in  1814,  he  received  an  official  letter 
inquiring  if  he  would  accept  a  Greek  chair  in  the  College  Royal. 
But  certainly,  whilst  the  Greeks  are  proud  of  him  as  a  scholar,  it 
is  as  a  national  benefactor  that  his  memory  is  retained  with 
gratitude,  and  his  name  mentioned  with  veneration. 

The  four  brothers,  Zosimades,  distinguished  above  all  other 
Greek  merchants  for  munificence, — and  the  merchants  have  been 
princes  to  the  enslaved  Greeks  by  their  patronage  of  letters — 
addressed  to  Koraes,  long  before  the  outbreak  of  the  Greek 
revolution,  this  question  :  ''^oTog  umi  6  rpCrrog  roj  va  smray^uvrj  rig 
rr^v  d^y^ofjLsvTtV  TTJg  'EXXddog  dvayswrigm  ;  wdiat  is  the  way  to  further 
the  begun  regeneration  of  Greece  ?  Koraes,  in  his  answer,  urged 
the  diffusion  of  the  classic  Greek  authors,  with  notes  in  Ancient, 
and  prolegomena  in  Modern  Greek ;  and  was  himself  charged 
with  the  execution  of  the  work.  Thus  originated  the  "  Greek 
Library,"  consisting  of  17  vols.,  the  first  of  which,  called 
Upodpo/Mog,  appeared  in  1805,  one  year  before  the  death  of  Euge- 
nius,  and  made  a  great  sensation.  Amid  the  general  enthusiasm 
which  greeted  the  successive  volumes,  might  be  heard,  as  in  the 
case  of  Eugenius,  the  grumbling  of  the  clergy,  who  mistook  the 
foe  of  superstition  for  an  infidel,  and  the  sneer  of  the  pedants  who 
affected  the  ^oVs  /xoi  Xsxdvriv  susceptibility  at  the  installation  of 
Modern  Greek.  Koraes  demonstrated  the  absolute  necessity,  in 
order  to  national  reconstitution  and  jn'ogress,  of  adopting  a  truly 
national  language  :  applying  philosophical  criticism,  under  the 
light  of  antiquity,  to  Romaic,  he  discovered  in  it  innumerable 
remains  of  Ancient  Greek,  and  showed  how  far  at  that  time  they 
might  be  restored  to  their  ancient  forms ;  finally,  by  his  volumi- 
nous compositions  in  Modern  Greek,  remarkable  for  perspicuity, 
I  may  not  say  he  presented  his  countrymen  with  a  language 
of  his  framing,  but  he  made  them  conscious  of  possessing  a 
language  which  required  only  cultivation  to  rank  with  the  most 
polished  of  Europe.  Besides  the  seventeen  volumes  of  the  "  Greek 
Library,"  Koraes  published  twenty-two  others  of  or  on  Greek 
literature,  including  five  of  the  "  Am'/.ra,  that  inestimable  treasure 


51 


1 


to  the  student  of  Romaic  and  Modern  Greek.  The  gigantic 
industry  of  Koraes  may  be  imagined  from  the  extent  of  his 
authorship  and  editorship,  amounting  together,  to  not  less  tlian 
fifty  octavo  volumes  ;  and  this  exclusive  of  an  immense  corres- 
pondence, in  which  the  strength  of  both  his  private  friendshi]) 
and  his  patriotism  conspicuously  appears.  In  short,  on  account 
of  his  labours,  and  the  privations  in  the  midst  of  which  they  were 
carried  on,  Koraes  may  justly  be  called  the  literary  hei'o  and 
martyr  of  the  Greek  revolution. 

An  anecdote  from  the  recent  history  of  Greek  lexicography 
will  show  that  the  ecclesiastical,  the  most  powerfully  constituted 
interest  among  tlie  Greeks,  was  not  with  Koraes ;  and  this  will 
be  another  proof  that,  had  not  the  movement  he  led  on  corres- 
ponded with  the  nation's  wants,   it  could  not  have  succeeded. 
In  1800,  the  question  was  raised  at  the  instance  of  Photiades, 
director  of  the  Greek  school  at  Bucliarest,  "  How  can  we  get  a 
useful  lexicon  for  our  schools  ?"     At  that  time,  besides  the  Miya 
Agg/xou  of  Barinus,  dedicated  to  Leo  X.,  and  wholly  in  Ancient 
Greek,  Romaic-speaking  youths  had  no  help  in  their  classical 
studies  save  the  small  and  very  defective  quarto  of  Constantinos, 
published  in  1754,  and  written  in  the  spoken  dialect.    TJie  above 
question  received  practical  answers  from  Vienna  and  Constanti- 
noi)le.    From  the  former.  Gazes  sent  his  Modern  Greek  transla- 
tion of  Schneider's  lexicon  to  Venice,  wliere  it  was  published  in 
three  4to  volumes  in  1809,  1812,  181C;  and  at  Constantinople, 
the  i)atriarchal  school  undertook  the  composition  of  a  folio  lexicon, 
called  x/:wr^;_the  Ark;  of  which  vol.  i.  appeared  in  1819,  and 
vol.  ii.  in  1821,  when  the  terrible  scenes  consequent  on  the  Greek 
revolution  interrupted  the  publication.    The  materials  were  taken 
from  Stephanus  ;  but  the  learned   Uacddsg,  not  understandino- 
the  signs  of  the  times,  wrote  the  explanations  in  Ancient  Greek. 
I  would  venture  to  remark  that  too  much  credit  has  been 
given  to  the  Greek  Church  as  the  conservatrix  of  the  national 
language.     The  daily  reading  of  its  voluminous  services,  the 
practice  of  drawing  up  ecclesiastical  minutes  in  Byzantine  Greek, 
and  the  study  of  the  fathers  have  no  doubt  kept  the  higher  clergy 
familiar  with  the  ancient  language,  just  as  similar  causes  have 
maintained   a  certain   knowledge  of  Latin  among  the   Roman 
priests ;  but  I  know  not  how  the  popular  dialects  have  profited 


\ 


52 


ROMAIC. 


by  all  this,  unless  indeed  by  the  ac([uisition  of  such  tingmentary 
phrases  as  dsov  dsXovrog,   dtia  yjL^in,  [Ln  y'smro,  riTikKSr^i,  on  the 
streno-th  of  which  some  would  make  out  Romaic  to  be  much  less 
defective  than  it  is.     If  the  Greek  Church,  witli  the  blindness 
characteristic  of  traditional  institutions,  has  proceeded  on  tlie 
supposition  that  the  present  has  no  business  to  differ  from  the 
past,  even  in  language,  and  has  thus  succeeded  in  maintaining 
the  ascendancy  of  the  ancient  dialect  within  a  limited  circle,  it 
has  renounced  by  that  very  policy  whatever  control  it  might 
otherwise  have  exerted  over  the  dialectical  anarchy  prevailing 
beyond   its  immediate  pale.     Had  there  been   all  along  fewer 
church-readings  in  an  unknown  tongue,  and  more  preaching  ni 
a  known  one,  the  ecclesiastical  style  might  have  become  the 
standard  of  the  national  language,  and  the  literary  obligations  of 
posterity  to  the  church  would  have  been  much  greater  than 

they  are.  ^^      i   •         •  i 

To  popular  schools,  and  to  the  press.  Modern  Greek  is  mainly 
indebted  for  its  spread  and  its  prospect  of  ultimate  consolidation. 
It  deserves  to  be  kno\\'n  that,  in  the  organisation  of  its  schools, 
the  petty  kingdom  of  Greece  may  challenge  comparison  with  the 
most  advanced  nations  of  Euroi')e.  The  following  summary  of 
the  official  educational  returns  for  1853  is  borrowed  from  the 
a>o/w2  for  June  of  that  year  :  — 

Attendance. 

Popular  schools,  in  which  the  instruction  is 

gratuitous,  for  boys,        -         -         -         -  279| 


30  i 
72 

7 

4 

1 


33,411 


5,750 
1,950 

400 


Ditto,  ditto,  ditto,  for  girls,  .         -         - 

Greek  schools,  with  four  teachers  each, 
Gymnasia,  with  seven  teachers  each. 
Private  Gymnasia  competing  w^ith  the  former. 
University,  with  forty  professors. 

Besides  these,  there  are  normal  schools  for  the  training  of 
male  and  female  teachers,  as  also  special  schools,  theological  and 
military,  agricultural  and  artistic. 

Of  course,  without  the  patriotic  liberality  of  Greek  merchants 
throughout  the  world,  so  many  institutions,  confennng  remote 
rather  than  immediate  benefits,  could  neither  have  been  founded 
nor  be  efficiently  maintained  in  so  small  and  poor  a  country  as 
is  the  kingdom  of  Greece.     Athens,  however,  is  the  capital  not 


UOMAIC. 


53 


/  II 


only  of  Greece,  but  of  the  Greeks  everywhere,  as  is  clearly 
evinced  by  the  surprising  development  of  its  periodical  press. 
With  a  population  somewhat  over  30,000,  it  possesses  about 
twenty  newspapers,  of  which  four  are  published  twice,  and  the 
rest  once  a  week,  besides  seven  monthly  or  bi-monthly  periodi- 
cals, literary  and  scientific.^ 

Modern  Greek  literature  is  not  wanting  in  poetry,  but  the 
chief  productions  of  the  non-periodical  press  are  school-books, 
translations  of  romances  from  the  French,  and  hand-books  of 
the  various  arts  and  sciences,  in  which  last  to  fix  the  nomencla- 

^  To  combat  the  possible  incredulity  of  the  reader  regarding  this  un- 
exampled literary  activity,  I  copy  from  the  fly-leaf  of  the  Spectatcur  de  V 
Orient  for  September  1853,  one  of  the  seven  publications  above  referred  to, 
the  following  catalogue  of  the  entire  Greek  periodical  press : — 

ATIIENES.  JOURNAUX. 

Journal  Official  du  Gouvernement.  j     Le  National. 
La  Minerve.  Le  Zephyr. 

Le  Nouveau  Monde. 

La  Renommee. 

La  Fleclie. 

Le  Miroir  Grec  (en  Francais.) 

L'Observatoire  d'Athenes  (en  Fran- 
cais.) 


Le  Siecle. 

L'Esperaiice. 

L'Orient. 

La  Semaine. 

Le  Journal  des  Ktudiants. 

La  Jeune  Grece. 


La  Pandore. 
La  Mnemosyne. 
La  Themis. 
L'Abeille  Medicale. 

SYRA. 

Le  Mercure. 
L'Eole. 

I'ATUAS. 

Journal  de  Patras. 

TUIPOLIS. 
NAUPLIE. 
CIHTALCIS. 
CONST ANTlNOrLE. 

Le  Telegraphe  de  Bosphore. 
Le  Journal  de  Constantinople  (en 
Francais.) 

SMYRNE. 

L'Amalthee. 

Le  Journal  de  Smvrne. 


OUVUA(iES   I'KRIODIQUES. 

L'Euterpe. 


(en 


La  BibliothCque  du  Peuple. 
Le    Spectateur    de     I'Orient 
Francais.) 

JOURNAUX. 

L' Union, 
lie  Labarum. 

Le  Minos. 

L' Amelioration. 

Journal  des  Lois. 

L'llellene. 


L'Orient  (Journal  Turco-Grec  pour 
les  Chretiens  de  I'Asie.) 


L'Impartial  (en  Francais.) 


ffi 


54 


ROMAIC. 


ture  is  always  a  main  problem.     How  greatly  such  manuals 
are  needed  is  cleai-  from  the  fact  that  some  of  the  profesj^orial 
lectures  in  the  University  of  Athens,  instead  of  being  read  for 
the  stimulus  and  general  guidance  of  the  students,  are  dictated 
for  entire  transcription,  no  text-book  on  the  subject  treated  of 
havmg  as  yet  been  prepared ;  indeed,  the  immense  disproportion 
betu  een  the  irksome  labour  and  the  slender  profit  of  transcribing 
so  much,  and  poring  over  hastily-written  notes,  is  the  subject  ol* 
general  and  just  complaint  among  the  students.     The  ancient 
Greeks  were  no  linguists,  and  their  ignorance  of  other  lano-uao-es 
safeguarded  the  purity  of  their  own  ;   besides,  in  the  art's  alid 
sciences  they  had    no  masters,  and  were  therefore   under  no 
temptation  to  borrow.     The  modern  Greeks,  on  the  other  hand, 
are  polyglott  in  the  highest  degree,  and,  in  appro])riating  the 
mtellectual  treasures  to  wliich  their  lingual  acquirements^'give 
them   access,  they  inevitably  supply  the  bhanks  in  their  own 
literary  and  scientific  language  by  directly  translating  foreign 
expressions.     Foreign  iconls,  however,  are  rigorously  excluded  ; 
and  even  in  the  weekly  press,  the  names  of  foreign  newspapers, 
sometimes  also  of  foreign  places,  are  subjected  to  translation. 
Ihus  the  Tbnes  is  known  as  o  x..'.o;,  the  Morning  Herald  as 
0  sr:ij6mg  Kr^oul,  etc.,  and  whereas  in  English  it  would  sound  ridi- 
culous to  call  lej^alais  des  ruiUeries  the  palace  of  tbe  Tileworks, 
It  is  actually  translated  by  ra  amxro^.a  r^v  Ks^a^dslujv  in  JModern' 
Greek. 

The  flict,  that  the  style  of  thought  among  the  modern  Greeks 
has  been  cast  in  the  European  mould,  opposes  an  invincible  bar- 
rier to  the  complete  restoration  of  the  ancient  language.  Even 
witli  the  same  vocabulary  and  the  same  grannnar,  Mod'ern  Greek 


CORFU. 

Journal  du  Goiivernenient. 

Le  Phoenix  (Recueil  Pcriodiqnc.) 


ZANTE. 


L'Ami  de  la  Vtrite. 

Le  Bouquet  (Rccucil  Periodiquo  ) 
In  the  autuuH.  of  1853  the  Athenian  press  teemed  with  publications  on 
he  Eastern  question,  and  eopies  have  reached  me  of  four  newspapers  (.. 

established  smce  the  date  of  the  above  list,  so  that  the  general  estinmte  n 
the  text  respecin^  the  Athenian  periodical  press  makes  the  nearest  possible 
approximation  to  the  truth.  po^Moie 


IIOMAIC. 


55 


f«l 


would  necessarily  difi'cr  from  Ancient,  because  the  ancient  modes 
of  conception  are  gone  for  ever.  Capo  d'  Istrias  wrote  like  a 
philosopher  when  he  penned  the  following  sentences :  ^'  'E/w 
oo^a^w  or/  dsv  sivai  a/  hs^sig  outs  at  (ppdasig  rcov  craXa/wi'  (J'j'yypa(p£c>jv 
oTou  /xag  dvff'/.oXivouv  va  xaraXdZojjtiiv  rag  evvolag  rujv,  'AXX  s/vai  avrri  r, 
[LiraZokri  ^wi/  JdsMv,  avrri  7}  dia(popd  tou  rpo'rov  rou  hvosTv,  d-TToij  [Jbag 
s/M'Todi^si  \d  6'j[jj'::if>i7.dZ'j)!Mi)i  rr^v  durr^v  hvoiav  y^ard  rbv  durbv  rpo-rov,  %a^' 
6v  6  C'jyypa^i'jg^  xara  rj^v  didhffiv  tojv  Idiuv  rov,  Tr^v  evvsXa^i'  xai  sx 
rouTov  rrpoipyjrai  y.ai  r,  dia(popd  Trig  g'x^^atfgw;*"  ^  This  diversity  in 
the  style  of  thought  necessarily  implies  diversity  in  the  style  of 
composition ;  and  here  lies  the  extreme  limit  w  here  Modern 
Greek  must  eventually  stop  in  its  course  of  assimilation  to  the 
Ancient.  It  is  not  likely,  however,  that  this  limit  will  ever  be 
reached,  owing  to  the  necessity,  from  the  popular  constitution  of 
modern  society,  of  sooner  or  later  filling  up  the  chasm  which  still 
exists  between  the  spoken  language  even  of  the  educated,  and 
their  written  style. 

As  summing  up  the  view  I  have  been  led  to  form  regarding 
the  present  state  and  future  })rospects  of  Modern  Greek,  and  as 
presenting  a  fair  specimen  of  the  approved  style  now  current,  I 
conclude  with  an  extract  from  No.  36  of  the  Pandora,  one  of  the 
Athenian  literary  periodicals  mentioned  in  the  preceding  note. 
By  comparing  the  style  of  this  extract  with  that  of  Koraes,  the 
reader  will  perceive  what  great  progress  the  literary  language 
has  made  since  his  time  : — 'Ovdsv  h/jpiffTSpov  rr,g  lyj^oypoi^piag  r/Aivrig 
rov  vorj/xarog  rr,g  drrb  rov  y.aXd/xov  drroppsovdrig^  /Md/.iffra  orav  rrp6y.r,Tai 
rrspi  dvTiyii/xsvo'j  rrspi  o5  s'Tpay/jLccrsuOi^  r,h7i  i}  dpyaia  yXojffCta,  zai  roD 
o-rolov  Xirrdpyji  rtph  h:p^cxXiiZ)))  rb  xsi/Mevor  oudsv  ^-jtJyzpsGTSpov  rou  '(^ojypoi(pr/,oZ 
y.ai  ypoj/Marivov  Xoyov  tou  drrb  T^jg  -^vyrtg  sxT'/iyd'^ovTog,  /Md/jffra  orav 
'rrpoyr^rat  mpi  dvriy.si/j,ho'j  vhu,  d-rairovvrog  dr,/jbiovpyiav  opuv  xai  rpC'rcov 
sx(ppd(feug.  'H  dvridiGig  dvri^  ifrdpysi  sig  <7rd(fav  yXojccav^  id/c/jg  ds  sig 
r^v  rjjtiSTspaVy  biori  6  ^wz/^og  xai  l{jj->\/\jyf)g  ezsTiog  "koyog  elvai  d-rg/xov/o'/xa 

*  For  translation,  see  p.  GO. 

'  An  investigation  of  Modern  Greek  literature  fully  bears  out  the  state- 
ment of  the  writer  :  witness  the  Bacchanalian  songs  of  Athanasios  Christo- 
poulos,  and  the  satires  of  Alexandres  Soutzos,  both  of  which  are  downright 
Romaic,  or  little  short  of  it.  Koraes  has  left  his  opinion  on  record,  that  no 
great  tragedy  can  be  produced  in  Modern  Greek  prior  to  the  year  1950 ; 
this  may  or  may  not  be,  but  the  prophecy  would  have  been  infallibly  true  of 
a  corned  v. 


56 


ROMAIC. 


roj  rrpo^pofiTLoZ,  rap  ijfih  b-  6  Tpopopixog  Xoyog  diafspn  oufficubojg  rou 
yparrroij,  xa/  avrog  'j-rrh  ruv  XoyKfjTEpouv  dvdpa>v  ojULiXov/isvog^  xai  dvrog 
mpl  Tu>v  (f'TO'jdaioTspMv  d'^rixsi/isvcuv  rrpay/Marsvojtiivog.  Na/  /tisv  hg  rroXXd 
^^Tj  srauriGdr,  (lira  roD  ypa-rroZ,  hg  rroXkd  o/Mug  di<rrd^6i  in.  Ex  rovrou 
rrXsierT}  rrap  durtfj  vrrdpyii  tri  dvcti/xaXta  xal  iXXn-^ig  dxpiZiiag'  svrsvdsv 
ds  xai  on,  orav  6  yparrrog  Xoyog  ivdoirai  r^v  ^uriporrira  rou  rrpo^opixoij, 
djayxdiCfjg   (Liriyii    xard  H  /iidWov  xai    rirrov  rag  dvw,aa>./a;    sxn^rjg, 

xai  npi  rr,v  dxpiZnav  sXXii-^iug *Eav  xaXov  di  ihai  v  am-^/oDra/ 

6  Tpo^opixhg  7.6yog,  TpoffXa/MZdvMv  odov  oJov  n  rbvg  ^apaxTr,pag  roZ  yparrrou, 
xaXov  iJvat  vd  sfi-^vy^oZrai  6  yparrrhg  rrpodXafi^dvuv  rovg  ^apaxrripag  rou 
rrpofopixoZ.  Aid  [MQvrig  r^j  d/Moi^diag  raurrig  dpaoiug  xai  dvndpdffiug  dsXsi 
<Mop^M&7i  It/  r'iXo'jg  7}  6pi(rnx,r}  ri/xutv  y\Zi66aP^ 

*  For  translation,  see  p.  60. 


I 


A  P  r  E  N  D  I  X. 


To  facilitate  the  perusal  of  Part  III.  to  some  readers,  translations 
are  appended  of  the  somewhat  long  Greek  quotations,  which  it 
contains. 

See  p.  34. — In  consequence  of  the  prevailing  dialectical 
anarchy,  the  nation  was  in  a  situation  at  once  difficult  and  dan- 
gerous, and  withal,  truly  singular ;  for  it  was  paradoxically  with- 
out a  language,  and  polyglott  at  the  same  time ;  without  a 
language,  on  the  one  hand,  on  account  of  the  corruption  per- 
vading the  dialects,  and  their  great  imperfection ;  polyglott  on 
the  other,  inasmuch  as,  there  being  no  grammatical  and  syntac- 
tical standard,  every  man  spoke  and  composed  according  to  the 
rules  of  his  own  fancy. 

See  p.  35. — As  for  the  restoration  of  the  Greek  language,  it 
were  certainly  desirable  that  the  modern  should  be  subjected  to 
the  rules  of  the  ancient ;  but,  as  I  have  said  on  other  occasions, 
this  seems  to  me  im|)ossible.  To  tell  you  the  truth,  my  desire  to 
see  the  lanmiaffe  retuniinfj  towards  the  ancient  model  is  not  so 
great  as  is  my  fear  lest  it  become  more  barbarous  than  it  is ;  for 
you  see  there  are  not  wanting  among  us  men,  and  these  too 
learned  and  zealous,  who  maintain  that  we  ought  to  write  and 
sjieak  as  do  the  can'iers  of  wood  and  water.  My  views  are  far 
indeed  from  such  a  system,  and  I  think  that,  if  the  scholar  is 
bound  to  condescend  to  the  measure  of  the  wood-carrier's  com- 
])rehension,  so  also  the  wood-carrier  slioiild  make  an  effort  to  rise 


■HI 


58 


APPENDIX. 


APPENDIX. 


59 


towards  the  comprehension  of  the  language  spoken  and  written 
by  the  scholar ;  and  in  this  way  that  both  should  meet  in  the 
middle  of  the  ladder. 

See  p.  36.— 1.  The  language  of  the  ancient  Greeks  and  of  us 
moderns  shall  be  one  and  the  same ;  their  grammar  and  ours 
shall  be  one  and  the  same. 

2.  Only  their  words  and  phrases  shall  be  admitted,  and  every 
foreign  word,  as  also  foreign  phrase  in  Greek  words,  shall  be 
excluded. 

3.  The  sentences  shall  be  neither  long  nor  involved  ;  but  the 
structure  of  our  composition  shall  be  easily  intelligible,  plain  and 
simple,  as  in  the  ancient  poets  Homer  and  Hesiod,  and  as  in  the 
historians  Herodotus  ancl  Xenophon. 

4.  Every  one  of  the  parts  of  speech,  every  word,  phrase,  and 
idiom  of  the  ancient  Greeks  shall  be  admitted,  as  soon  as  they 
become  intelligible  to  the  iUte  of  the  Greeks,  and  provided  they 
offend  not  the  ear. 

See  p.  38.— 'A/  hrroyjc^Sidug  sTvb  TsotgraXrai,  ccv  ufftv  hrn^ZoXi^atoi, 

says  the  translation  of  the  Code  Civile ;  but  who  can  understand 
this  without  a  knowledge  of  the  corresponding  French  ? 

See  p.  41.— 1.  When  enlightened  nations  begin  to  take  plea- 
sure in  what  is  base,  no  other  remedy  perhaps  remains  for  them 
than  to  return  once  more  to  their  primitive  bai-barism. 

2.  The  absence  of  great  defects  in  writers  frequently  proceeds 
from  feebleness  of  mind,  and  is  not  always  owing  to  the  general 
virtue  of  their  age  :  he  little  fears  to  fall,\vho  has  never  Teamed 
to  soar. 

3.  The  learned  men  of  a  nation  are  naturally  the  lawgivers  of 
the  language  which  the  nation  speaks ;  but  they  are  The  law- 
givers of  a  democratic  thing.  To  them  belongs  the  con-ection 
of  the  language  ;  but  the  language  itself  is  the  property  of  the 
whole  nation,  its  sacred  property. 

See  p.  43.— You,  sir,  are  for  the  present  governor  of  the  lads, 
along  with  Kritopoulos.  It  is  necessary  above  all  that  you  care 
for  their  education  and  manners.  Let  them  become  good  and 
learned,  if  you  would  have  them  honoured  here ;  for  otherwise 
men  will  despise  both  them  and  you,  nor  so  much  as  turn  to  look 
upon  you.  We  conversed  on  this  subject  with  the  late  prince 
their  father,  and  he  wished  that  thev  should  dress  and  live  alto' 


I 


V 


gether  as  Franks ;  that  is  to  say,  that  they  should  follow  the 
church  in  every  respect  as  Latins,  and  not  otherwise ;  that  they 
should  be  dressed  after  the  Latin  fashion  ;  that  they  should  learn 
to  kneel  before  those  of  distinction,  whether  Pope,  Cardinals,  or 
other  princes,  and  that  they  should  uncover  their  heads  in  honour 
of  those  who  salute  them.     When  they  go  to  see  a  Cardinal  or 
other  like  prince,  let  them  on  no  account  sit,  but  kneel ;  and 
then,  when  he  bids  them,  let  them  rise.     He  of  blessed  memory 
used  to  say  that,  though  often  bidden,  they  should  by  no  means 
sit.     All  these  things  then  remember,  that  you  may  instruct  and 
exhort  tliem  well.     Farther,  see  that  their  gait  be  decent  and 
dignified,  their  conversation  profitable,  their  voice  subdued  and 
gentle,  their  look  composed,  by  no  means  staring  about  on  tliis 
side  and  on  that.     Let  them   honour  all,  love  all,  and  converse 
respectfully  with  all,   w^hether  their   own   people  or  strano-ers. 
Let  them  by  no  means  be  haughty,  but  humble  and  gentle  ;  let 
them  not  remember  at  all  that  they  are  descendants  of  a  king, 
but  let  them  remember  that  they  have  been  driven  from  their 
country,  and  that  they  are  orphans,  strangers,  penniless ;  that 
they  require  to  live  on  foreign  bounty,  and  that,  if  they  are  without 
virtue,  if  they  are  not  prudent  and  humble,  if  they  do  not  honour 
all,  neither  will  others  honour  them,  but  all  will  abominate  them. 
Think  well  then  of  all  these  things,  sir,  along  with  Kritopoulos. 
See  p.  44.— Once  for  all,  holy  fathers,  we  have  come  among 
the  Franks,— I,  for  my  part,  not  of  my  own  proper  motion.    The 
initiative  in  the  present  afi^air  was  not  mine,  but  my  royal  father's, 
who,  as  you  remember,  when  he  was  at  the  isthmus  of  Corinth, 
sent  that  John  of  blessed  memory  into  Italy,  and  so  began  this 
work.     You  know  the  learning  and  experience  of  the  king  my 
father,  that  he  was  not  only  an  excellent  philosopher,  but  a  most 
minute  expounder  of  the  dogmas  of  the  church,  having  had  for 
his  counsellor  that  truly  virtuous  man  and  profound  theologian, 
the  patriarch  Euthemios.     So  great  men  as  these  did  not  intend 
merely  to  undertake  such  a  business,  but,  having  begun  it,  they 
meant  also  to  conclude  the  same.    Time,  however,  prevented  this. 
The  work,  therefore,  has  fallen  upon  us,  not  exactly  as  upon  those 
before  us,  but  rather  in  a  better  condition. 

See  p.  48. — We  would  have  tolerance  in  religion  combined 
with  zealous  piety,  lest  it  should  glide  into  indifterence.     The  in- 


(iO 


APPENDIX. 


different  man  is  passionless  ;  the  passionless  and  apathetic  man 
insensible ;  and  in  regard  to  what  can  he  who  is  insensible  j)rac- 
tise  and  manifest  his  forbearance  ?  What  solicitude  and  care, 
what  change,  in  short,  respecting  matters  of  faith  can  be  expected 
from  him  who  is  indifferent  whether  this  or  that  be  believed  ? 
Matters  of  faith  are  nothing  to  him  who  has  no  definite  faith  at 
all.  ^  Such  a  man  is  not  properly  tolerant  in  religion,  but  without 
religion  altogether. 

Same  page.— -Decking  themselves  with  philosophical  terms, 
interwoven  into  the  vulgar  style,  certain  writers  imagine  that 
they  touch  almost  the  summit  of  knowledge  with  their  heads  ; 
but  being  ignoramuses  in  philosophy,  they  make  fools  of 
themselves  like  striplings.  Those  contemptible  books,  then, 
which  profess  to  treat  of  philosophy  in  the  vulgar  tongue,  are  to 
be  hissed  out  of  fashion,  and  the  Greek  language  as  much  as  pos- 
sible to  be  cultivated,  without  which,  besides,  the  ancient  philo- 
sophers cannot  be  enjoyed. 

See  p.  55, — I  am  of  opinion  that  the  difficulty  we  experience 
in  catching  the  sense  of  ancient  writers  arises  not  from  their 
words  and  phrases,  but  from  a  change  in  our  ideas,  a  difference 
in  our  modes  of  conception,  which  prevents  us  from  entertaining 
the  same  thought  in  the  same  manner  in  which,  from  the  dispo- 
sition of  his  ideas,  the  writer  had  conceived  it ;  and  hence  pro- 
ceeds the  difference  of  expression. 

Same  page.— Nothing  is  easier  than  that  delineation  of  the 
sense  which  proceeds  from  the  pen,  especially  when  the  subject 
in  question  has  been  already  treated  of  in  Ancient  Greek  and  the 
writer  has  the  text  before  him ;  but  nothing  is  more  difficult  than 
that  graphic  and  pictorial  language  which  wells  from  the  soul, 
especially  when  the  subject  handled  is  new,  and  requires  the  in- 
vention of  terms  and  modes  of  expression.  Such  is  the  case  in 
every  language,  but  more  i)articularly  in  ours,  because  the  lively 
and  animated  style  referred  to  is  a  rellectioji  from  the  spoken 
language ;  and  with  us  the  spoken  language,  even  as  employed 
by  the  most  learned  men,  and  on  the  most  important  subjects, 
differs  essentially  from  the  written.  In  many  respects,  indeed, 
the  spoken  language  lias  been  already  conformed  to  the  written ; 
but  in  many  it  still  stands  aloof;  and  on  this  account  there  pre- 
vails in  it  the  greatest  irregularity  and  want  of  precision.     Hence 


APPENDIX. 


r»i 


also,  when  written  composition  assumes  the  liveliness  of  spoken 
language,  it  necessarily  partakes  more  or  less  of  that  irregularity 

and  want  of  precision If  it  is  well  that  the  spoken 

language  should  be  elevated,  adopting  as  much  as  possible  the 
character  of  written  composition,  it  is  also  well  that  written  com- 
position should  be  enlivened  by  adopting  the  characters  of  the 
spoken  language ;  and  only  by  this  mutual  action  and  reaction 
will  our  definite  language  be  at  length  formed. 


I 


THE  EM). 


i 


'•       •     .    •     M'lrif  *  Y   AND  OlBli,  PRINTEKS,  EDINBURfin. 

'•»•••  ,  .    2     .       >  , 

'•'■».  I       , 

■     '       ■  .  «    V 

I 


•        * 

1    •  « 


*      • 


•      *  .  •  • 


*    •  .    •     < 


•    •     .  <    •      • 


«       «        •      •      k    • 


«       •  (        •    • 


•        •  .     •      » 


! 

I 

j 


I 


r 


^ 


888 

Clyde 

Romaic  and  1 

ON  2  4  '42  R.    106 


C62.a 


reek 


f    14 


I 


/ 


':'^^^mm-*^m^'m . 


.     .:;>::::::<::;'>:::-:-::;;><'!::-:y:>:::H<:><:>;:;r<'-^ 

r. ■.■.'. •.•.'.'.•  ■<■  •■'■>'  '  \',', %%•,'. '.'.".•••.•.". ^%•.'.^^•.•.*,,•.•. •.•-*.%•.•.•.".•.•.•  r*.'.**'!'****...*-!*  •.-.•_'--'.'^-'-.'.»:>.'  «i'  •• 

^:i::•:•:^'^^•^:^•:v^^:•:•:^•:•:^•^^^•::^:^^^:^^:•^^;:^v;•:^^•^;';^•^■•;^^^^^^^^  ,. 

'    ^::^^^^^:•^^^:<•^^:•^^^^^x^'rv•:^•^^^:v:<-:^^^^^^^;♦^^^^>^^^^^H:>^ 


V%V.%SNNV,*.N\-.NV.V.NN\V.SNNV.NNV.SNN'.V.NV.'.'.*.N-.VNN*.-.-«,\%%*,\V.-  -.•.•..•.,-;.•, -;v>.  .V. 


:mmmmmmmmm^mmm^^im^^ 


I.'. ■-■.••', 


•.*.•.•.'.•.•.•..'.•,•.<,'.',','.»••.• 


vmmmmmmmmmmmmmmvmmmm^m'mm' 


^ 


£      l^:^>^^^:•^^^:■:<^:•:^•^:.;•^;v^r•^^:•:^•:•^;• 


^    :  ••:v^:•x•fe•^:•^^^:•:•:^•:•:■:^^^•:^^•^:•:•:•^^x•:•:"^:•;•^;  ^!^•^^:•^^:v:•:  :•: . :  ;•:•. . : : : : . : . 


■.•1X% 


i'M'M-j.::.::.; 


%:!•;• '^:!^;•:•^:■^:^•;•:•:•:•:«^•-;'^^:^v:•;^^•;•x-: 


^•:':«w  x-:tt;:;K!%;;«.^::S^.;^N-^:';-,- ..;. 


.•c...;:.:;;:...:.-i»V 


:;^f^i^'^'^^*i^^ 


Ik: 


:>i 


-. .  ■  ■  .-.•.--.<*'; 


^^  V 


/k 


W^ 


-^ 


i^ 


